It's win or go home time for the Langley Rivermen.
After earning a weekend split in Surrey in their best-of-five BCHL playoff series, the Rivermen failed to defend home ice in game three on Monday night, falling 6-2 at the Langley Events Centre to the Surrey Eagles.
A record crowd of 2,309 fans took in the contest between the two Mainland Division rivals.
The eight-goal outburst was in stark contrast to games one and two where goals were at a premium as the teams combined for three goals and a pair of shutouts.
The Eagles took game one 2-0 with Langley responding with a 1-0 win of their own.
In Monday's third game of the junior A hockey series, Michael Stenerson got the visitors on the board 2:05 into the game on a Surrey power play, depositing a rebound off a Drew Best point shot.
That was the only goal of the opening 20 minutes, but the Eagles would double their lead early in the second as Craig Wyszomirski placed a perfect wrist shot past James Barr on the glove side.
The Rivermen would get that goal back as Mario Puskarich stole the puck and fed it to a streaking James Robinson who flicked home his first of the post-season.
Trailing just 2-1 after 40 minutes, Langley had a third period they would like to forget as Surrey — struck four times to turn a tight game into a rout.
Brady Shaw and Adam Tambellini scored goals 5:39 apart to make it 4-1 and then Tambellini and Demico Hannoun scored 1:41 apart. The latter goal came on the man advantage.
The Rivermen's Trevor Cope made it 6-2 with a power-play goal, but it came with just four seconds to go.
Langley will look to stay alive as they host Surrey in game four on Tuesday (March 19). Puck drop is at 7:15 p.m.