With their season on the line, the Red Deer Vipers’ top scorers came through.
Thursday night the Vipers were on the brink of elimination from the Heritage Junior B Hockey League (HJHL) playoffs but a fury of goals put Red Deer on top in a 6-4 victory over the Rocky Rams.
The Vipers and Rams are now tied 1-1 in the qualifying round of a best-of-three series in the North Division.
After a scoreless first period, Andrew Wallace opened the Vipers’ scoring just six minutes into the middle frame.
The Rams tied it approximately two minutes after but Red Deer reclaimed the 2-1 lead midway through off the stick of Alex Litster.
The Rams scored two straight goals on the powerplay but Vipers Silas Buijs found the equalizer 3-3 with 1:30 left in the second.
Litster, followed by Wallace scored their second goals of the game to begin the third period with a 5-3 lead by the 6:43 minute mark.
The Rams made one final push to tie it scoring with just under three minutes remaining but Kyle Wallace put the game away 6-4 with 20 seconds left.
Vipers goaltender Josh Hilts came up with some big stops in the win posting 26 saves on 30 shots.
The series will be decided Saturday night in Rocky at 7:30 p.m. in a third and final game. The winner will move on to play either the Airdrie Thunder or the Sylvan Lake Wranglers. The matchup is dependent on the outcome of the series between the Three Hills Thrashers and the Mountainview Colts.