Load up the bus, boys. We're going back to Chilliwack.
Roman Horak scored at 7:16 in overtime as the Chilliwack Bruins rallied to beat the Tri-City Americans 4-3 on Friday before a crowd of 3,677 at Toyota Center to extend their Western Conference playoff series to Game 6.
"It's disappointing," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller, whose team squandered a 3-1 third-period lead for the second straight game. "We have to stay assertive for 60 minutes. We want to play aggressively, but we backed off that in the third."
Tri-City leads the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be Sunday in Chilliwack. If necessary, Game 7 will be Tuesday at Toyota Center.
"This was a good win," said Bruins coach Marc Habscheid. "We are starting to learn what it takes to win and this is a good starting point. We are going to go home and our goal is to come back here Tuesday night."
In the third period, the Bruins went with what worked Wednesday night in Game 4 -- pull the goalie for an extra attacker and get back in the game.
Lucas Gore went to the bench with 1:45 left in regulation, and Ryan Howse put the puck in the net in the midst of a scramble 11 seconds later to force overtime.
The Americans held a 3-1 lead entering the third period, but as they did Wednesday night, they let the Bruins back in the game as Alex Wiklund pulled Chilliwack within 3-2 with a power-play goal at 2:30.
"We just didn't come out with the same aggressiveness that we did in the first two periods," said Tri-City defenseman Jarrett Toll. "It's bitten us twice. This is something we have to correct."
Tri-City had an opportunity to put the game away early in the third as Tyler Stahl went to the penalty box for 4 minutes for high-sticking. The Americans managed just three shots on goal.
As Stahl's penalty was running out, Chilliwack's Jesse Craige was whistled for boarding, but again the Americans failed to capitalize. In all, Tri-City managed just four shots on goal during the extended power play.
"We didn't support each other on the power play," Hiller said. "Everyone wants to score and no one wants to do the dirty work. That was a big turning point in this game. Give their penalty kill credit."
The Americans finished 1-for-8 on the man advantage as the Bruins were assessed nine minor penalties. On the flip side, Chilliwack was 1-for-2.
"The officials never gave us a break all night," Habscheid said. "We had one power play, plus 5 seconds tonight, and we had one for 55 seconds the last game. I've never seen that in all my years of coaching."
Tri-City took a 2-1 lead after the first period and parlayed it into a 3-1 lead at 12:38 of the second as Johnny Lazo hit Kruise Reddick coming down the slot for a power-play goal.
The Bruins outshot the Americans 14-12 in the second and had several quality chances, but Owsley hung a closed sign on the goal.
On paper, the Americans dominated the first period, outshooting the Bruins 20-7 with four power plays -- including a 5-on-3 man advantage for nearly 2 minutes.
But Tri-City led just 2-1 as the Bruins shut down the Americans' power play -- allowing just two shots -- and took advantage of soft defensive coverage to score.
Brooks Macek opened the scoring at 6:08 as he lifted the puck past Gore and into the net.
Ten minutes later, the Bruins evened things up. Owsley made a nice pad save on a shot by Chris Collins, but with no help on the back side, Alex Wiklund had an open net.
Tri-City went back out front just 64 seconds later as Kruise Reddick won a faceoff with Shayne Neigum to the right of Gore and pushed the puck out to Sergei Drozd.
Drozd's shot was blocked by Gore, but Macek was there for the rebound, reaching around Chilliwack defenseman Jeff Einhorn and sweeping the puck in the net.
Gore finished with 44 saves, including eight in overtime.
"We were all ready to play," Gore said. "We knew if we lost we were going home. The team was great in front of me -- I just had to make the first save."
