BY PATRICK KING
sportsnet.ca

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- The hockey Gods have an interesting way of balancing the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

Four days after the Saint John Sea Dogs won their opening game on an off-side play that was not called, they lost on a play that had also been clearly off-side on replays, but not called on the ice. The fact the linesman missed the call was a moot point to the Kootenay players, and in particular, Max Reinhart, who brought the puck back in off-side.

"I don’t care, we’re going on to the next round," said a jovial Reinhart, who still hadn’t seen a replay of it when he met with the media.

Reinhart stopped the puck with his skate behind the blue line then passed it to Matt Fraser who surprised Sea Dogs goalie Mathieu Corbeil with a quick shot along the ice to give his team a 5-4 win in overtime.

"I guess the hockey Gods were on our side," Ice forward Kevin King said. "We got a little bit lucky there, if that was the case, so we have to take it and run with it."

With the win, the Kootenay Ice will live to see another day. The Ice will play in Thursday’s tiebreaker against the loser of Wednesday’s final round robin game between the Owen Sound Attack and the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.

The hockey Gods are sometimes hard to understand, but the game only went to overtime after Tomas Jurco scored the strangest goal of the tournament. With just 15 seconds remaining in the third period, Zack Phillips got the puck in the high slot and wired a shot that hit his teammate in the neck and bounced across the goal line.

Jurco didn’t even realize he scored his second of the game and fourth of the tournament until Phillips congratulated him for what Jurco agreed was the strangest goal of his career.

"I had no idea where it was going," Phillips said. "He was kind of hurt on the ice so I felt bad. I got down and said he scored and that cheered him up a bit."

"You know he’s hot right now," Sea Dogs defenceman Nathan Beaulieu said. "Even pucks off his head are going in."

Jurco, a native of Slovakia, drew an interesting comparison from his head coach after the game.

"I don’t think he tried to knock it in with his head," Gerard Gallant said. "He’s a European, but he’s not playing soccer anymore there. I knew it was a dangerous play. I was scared because I thought he might have got it in the jaw and broke his jaw, something like that, so fortunately for him he’s not injured at all."

Aside from a huge welt below his ear and jaw, Jurco said he was no worse for the wear.

After a tentative and scoreless first period, the offence came in droves in the second. The Sea Dogs, who were already assured a berth in Sunday’s final prior to this game, scored the first two goals from the sticks of Jurco and Ryan Tesink.

Kootenay fought back and scored the next three goals to take a 3-2 lead, but weren’t able to hold it. Sea Dogs defenceman Kevin Gagne fooled Ice goaltender Nathan Lieuwen on a weird play. Gagne wound up to take a shot from the high slot, but fanned on it and it went five-hole on Lieuwen.

Matt Fraser, who would score the overtime winner, put the Ice ahead once again. On a typical Kootenay goal, Brayden McNabb wound up from the point and drew the high forward towards him. He then dished the puck to his left to Reinhart, who fired it across the ice to Fraser who had an open net to fire the puck into.

King, an overage forward playing in possibly his final game, scored once and added one assist in the win. He played a spirited game and displayed a lot of urgency, trying to prolong his junior career.

"I want it to be the shortest summer possible for me," he said. "I guess it hasn’t really sunk in this could be my last games. To have it continue is definitely a great feeling."

The Sea Dogs rested goalie Jacob DeSerres, forward Michael Kirkpatrick and defenceman Simon Despres for this game since their place in Sunday’s final was already assured. Saint John had little to play for after last night’s overtime win over Owen Sound which put them in the final.

"It’s not easy getting up for these games," Beaulieu admitted.

With the win, the Kootenay Ice avoided becoming the first WHL team since 2000 to finish 0-3 in the MasterCard Memorial Cup. The last team to do so was the 2000 Kootenay Ice.

Notes: The 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup’s opening weekend averaged 90,000 more viewers than the opening weekend in 2010.