The Summerland Steam and the Kelowna Chiefs are tied in their playoff hockey battle.
Each team has won two of the four games played so far in the best of seven series.
The first two games were in Summerland.
The Steam won Friday’s game in a 3-2 decision but lost 3-1 on Saturday evening.
“We outshot them, but we just couldn’t score,” Steam co-owner and general manager Gregg Wilson said after the game.
He said the game was a disappointment, but the team was able to improve for the third game of the series the following day.
“They learned from it. In Game 3 they came at it with a different mindset,” Wilson said.
Sunday evening’s game, in Kelowna, ended in a decisive 10-4 win for the Steam.
While the win was encouraging, Wilson does not expect to see such domination on the ice repeated in the future.
“There will not be another game of this magnitude in this series,” he said.
He explained that the win was due in part to the Steam’s four strong lines. Coaches are able to rotate players during the games and as a result, players are rested and energetic. He added that Kelowna rotates two lines. As a result, the players were exhausted on Sunday.
The fourth game, in Kelowna on Tuesday, ended in a 3-2 loss for the Steam after a strong third period showing from the Chiefs.
In regular season play, the Steam finished solidly in second place in the Okanagan/Shuswap Conference: Okanagan Division, while the Chiefs were in third place.
The Steam finished the regular season with 28 wins, 19 losses, two ties and three overtime losses.
The Steam and the Chiefs faced each other eight times during regular season action, with Summerland winning five of those games.
The next game in the playoff series takes place at the Summerland Arena on Thursday, Feb. 26, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The following evening, the Steam will travel to Kelowna to face the Chiefs, with the game beginning at 7 p.m.
If a seventh game is required, it will be held at the Summerland Arena on Saturday, Feb. 28 beginning at 7:30 p.m.