The Mountain View Colts are heading to the North Division finals after beating the Red Deer Vipers 5-4 in overtime on Saturday night to come back from down three games to nothing to win the best-of-seven second round playoff series.
Coming from behind 3-0 is extremely rare with only five recorded in the history of the five major sports.
Colts head coach Rob Turville said he had never seen anything like it in his years of coaching.
"It was a pretty incredible comeback now that we've had a day or two to let it sink in," said Turville. "That's one thing -- I have to give the guys credit -- even when we were down 3-0; we weren't getting the bounces, the results weren't going our way.
"Our guys had that never-quit mentality. They just kept battling and working hard and never gave up."
Turville said the hard work by the Colts throughout the series eventually began to pay off.
"Obviously, we started getting some bounces," he said. "To win games 5, 6 and 7, all in overtime, you'll need to get some bounces. I think our team work ethic helped those bounces go in our direction."
The Colts' improbable come from behind series win from the brink of elimination began on Monday, Feb. 25 with a 4-2 win at home.
The Colts followed that win with a 5-4 overtime win in Red Deer two days later.
On Friday at home, the Colts evened the series at three games apiece with a 5-4 double overtime win over the Vipers setting up Game 7 in Red Deer.
Playing at home in Game 7, the Vipers went up 3-0 midway through the second period with goals from Keenan Smith, Connor Sullivan and Brody Kalinowski.
Colts captain Alan Klinck put Mountain View on the board with a goal at 5:10 of the second.
Laine Rothenbusch cut the Vipers' lead to 3-2 with his own goal at 15:39 of the third period as the Colts looked to charge back.
Ryan Vandervlis of Red Deer put the home team up 4-2 with a goal a few seconds later.
But the Colts were far from done. Rothenbusch scored his second of the game at 13:30 to once again bring Mountain View within a goal (4-3).
Kale Wright tied the game at 5:30 for the Colts sending the game into overtime.
"Laine Rothenbusch, a defenceman, stepped up for us with two goals," he said. "Kale (Wright) tied it; another unexpected source. He's played forward all his career and we put him back on defence and he's played well all series.
"It paid off with him getting that game tying goal. We were able to slowly take over that game and build momentum."
The teams were close through overtime until Mitchell Visser scored a power-play marker at 8:17 of the overtime period to give the Colts the game and series win over Red Deer.
The goal was Visser's second overtime game-winner in three games.
"Matt Myatt made a nice play on their d-man and forced him to take a penalty," said Turville. "We called a timeout and got the right guys on the ice. Fortunately, it worked out. Gedde made a nice pass to Visser for the goal."
Ethan Woodward got the win in goal for Mountain View stopping 29 of 33 shots.
Turville gave a lot of credit for the team's comeback to the great fans who came out and cheered the team on.
"I have to give credit to our fans who came out and supported the team all the way through," he said. "We had really good support. Even in Red Deer we had almost half the fans in the arena I'd say. I know our players really fed off that support. Hopefully we can keep it going against Airdrie."
The Colts now advance to the North Division final where they will face top ranked Airdrie in a best-of-seven series with the winner going on to the league final.
Game 1 goes tonight (Tuesday) at 8 p.m. in Airdrie, with Game 2 in Didsbury on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Game 3 goes Friday in Airdrie, while Game 4 is Saturday in Didsbury.
