After falling behind by two games in their quarter final playoff, the Shelburne Muskies returned home Saturday night to the familiar confines of the CDRC, looking to even the slate after posting a 6-4 win in Tavistock the night before.

With Rob Senay getting the nod to start game three in net for Shelburne, Tavistock tested Senay early and often. To the delight of the homefans, he was more than up to the challenge, turning away a number of shots through the opening minutes.

James Maunders would draw first blood, launching a shot from the point on a Muskie powerplay at 14:03.

Less than a minute later, Bill Boyes would feed the puck through the middle to Chris Greer in alone against Royals Mark Gillies, going up and over the sprawling cager for a 2-0 Muskie lead.

Now in high gear, Shelburne's potent offence was stalled by a pair of back to back minors.

Then, with just over five minutes to play in the first, Tavistock caught the Muskie defence deep, allowing Wes Kropf in alone on Senay to score a short a shorthanded marker. Ben Gingerich would add another 58 seconds later to even the score at 2-2.

Having been held in check for most of the first three games, Justin Shoebridge managed to break cover late in the period restore the Muskie lead only to again have it vanish with 36 seconds left in the frame, sending the squads into two tied at 3-3.

Tavistock again would have a number of chances to take the lead in the midframe but Senay continued to stand tall in goal while special teams managed successfully kill off the penalties including a Royals five on three late in the period.

Kevin Shoebridge managed to find some breathing room for the Muskies going into the second intermission, banging a loose puck past Gillies out of a scramble in front of Tavistock's net with 49 seconds left in the midframe.

Refusing to fold, the Royals redoubled their efforts through the third and were rewarded for their efforts when, after a flurry of shots, they finally managed to get one past Senay and even it up at 4-4 with 8:33 left to play.

A huge save by Senay on a Josh Seabrook breakaway brought the crowd to their feet with 50 seconds left in regulation time.

Then, with time running out, a Muskie rush lead by Andy Dudun gave the Fish a break they have lacked throughout this series. With Dudun passing the puck across from the right to left side, a deflection off the stick of the Tavistock defence gave Dudun and the Muskies what would end up as the winning goal with 32 seconds remaining and a 5-4 win, but even more importantly, evening up the best of seven series at 2-2.

After the game, an obviously elated Dudun commented on the game. "We pounded on them all night and finally we had a huge bounce that for once, went our way."

Assistant coach Rob Sturrock, who made the call to start Senay after the warmup was pleased with the effort of the team, in particular that of Senay. "We need two goal tenders,"said Sturrock. "This was a real confidence builder for Rob and that stop late in the third was a real boost for the whole team".

Action now heads back to Tavistock for game five on Wednesday night (results unavailable at press time) then back to the CDRC for game six where they hope to wrap up the series on Friday night.

If a game seven is required, it will be held on Saturday night with an 8:30 start in Tavistock.