The Langley Rivermen are in a heap of playoff trouble.
The reason: the 'Men find themselves in 3-1 hole in their best-of-seven, opening round playoff series versus the Wenatchee Wild.
And a 5-0 loss to the Wild at the George Preston Recreation Centre (GPRC) on Wednesday puts the local juniors on the brink of elimination from the B.C. Hockey League post-season.
The Rivermen have zero room for error. They will now have to win the next four games versus the Wild to stage the comeback and take the series in seven.
Wild goaltender Chase Perry posted shutout for the Wild while at the other end, Bo Didur was tapped for his fourth straight start in net for the Rivermen.
For a second straight night, the Wild opened the scoring.
After Konsta Jaske fired a shot off the pad of Didur on a breakaway opportunity out of the penalty box, Matthew Baker was there to pounce on the rebound to beat a diving Didur along the ice. For Baker, it was his third goal of the series.
After the marker, the Rivermen would go on to have a handful of golden scoring opportunities, but could not beat Chase Perry, who stopped all 17 shots he faced in the opening period. Didur stopped 12 of 13.
In the second period, Wenatchee got the lone goal of the period once again.
Kyle Stephan, the overtime hero from game three, beat Didur over the blocker side with a shot from the left-wing to put his team ahead by two.
The Rivermen had two great scoring opportunities shorthanded from Adam Sinclair and Matthew Graham, but both missed the net on an odd-man rush.
After 40 minutes, the Wild led the game 2-0 and the shot count was 24-19.
Perry continued his dominant play in the third period making plenty of great saves on golden scoring chances from the Rivermen.
His teammates helped him out scoring three straight goals from Blake Christensen, Kyle Stephan, and Brendan Harris to take the game by a five-goal margin.
Perry was outstanding in the win stopping all 29 shots he faced and earned first star honours.
The Rivermen will look to fend off elimination when the teams meet in game five this Friday, March 11 at the GPRC. Game time is 7 p.m.