Matchup: Victoria Salmon Kings at Idaho Steelheads. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 7 PM, at Qwest Arena.

Remember last year? The Salmon Kings swept the Steelheads out of the ECHL’s National Conference playoffs last April. Both team’s rosters have seen significant turnover, but the head coaches are the same: Idaho’s Derek Laxdal and Victoria’s Mark Morrison. Whether they outwardly talk about it or not, you can bet both remember Idaho’s early exit.

Get to know… For Victoria? Just about everyone. The S-Kings got off to a miserable start in October and early November, prompting Morrison to jettison a lot of players. How rough has it been north of the border? Through ten games, the S-Kings had two players – Chad Painchaud and Olivier Latendresse – who had more than four points. Through its first eleven games, Idaho had ten players who had surpassed four points.

Improving Kushniruk: When the season started, rookie forward Brandan Kushniruk was looking for a role with Idaho. Once he broke into the lineup in Alaska at the end of October, he found it – a hard-working, energy player on Idaho’s top line. He doesn’t have the gaudy stats of players like Tyler Spurgeon, Marty Flichel, or Evan Barlow, but he plays hard and does a lot of the little things that go unnoticed to help Idaho win games.

Welcome back, Rej: Goaltender Rejean Beauchemin returned to Idaho last week after being loaned to a team in the American Hockey League. He’s among the ECHL leaders in multiple categories. But you know who else is? Idaho’s other netminder, Richard Bachman. The Steelheads are in very capable hands, no matter which player starts in goal on a given night.

The Idaho Steelheads (13-3-1) picked up a 5-4 overtime win over the Victoria Salmon Kings (4-11-1) tonight at Qwest Arena. Brandan Kushniruk scored the game-winner for Idaho. Tyler Spurgeon led the way statistically with a goal and two assists in the victory.

Mathieu Tousignant opened the scoring for the Steelheads at 11:21 of the first period when Matt McKnight placed a pass from behind the net where Tousignant could sneak it between the left post and Victoria goalie David Shantz. For Tousignant, it was his fifth goal, and third in as many games.

Less than 40 seconds later, Adam Taylor countered for the Salmon Kings at 12:00 of the first period, as he banged a rebound home from the slot after Idaho’s Richard Bachman made the initial save on Scott Howes.

Less than three minutes into the second period, Victoria’s Jimmy Sharrow one-timed an Olivier Latendresse pass through traffic to beat Bachman and gave the Salmon Kings a 2-1 lead. Victoria was not done building a lead, as Patrick Coloumbe was able to sneak a puck through Bachman’s legs on a point shot at 12:50 of the second period to put Victoria up by a 3-1 margin.

Late in the second period with the Steelheads on a power play, Tyler Spurgeon took a pass from Mark Derlago in front of the net and deposited the puck by Shantz to pull the Steelheads to within a single tally.

At 6:52 of the third period, Mark Derlago fired a wrist shot by Shantz to tie the game at 3-3; the goal was Derlago’s seventh, and was assisted by Spurgeon. Just 24 seconds later, Ashton Rome fired a puck from the high slot that hit Shantz, and rolled through the Victoria netminder to give the Steelheads a 4-3 lead. Rome’s goal was his eighth on the season, putting him into a tie for the team lead with Evan Barlow. Mathieu Tousignant assisted on Rome’s goal.

The Salmon Kings still had life, as Scott Howes capitalized on a Steelheads defensive zone turnover to tie the game at 4-4 with 3:45 remaining. Howes’ goal would send the contest to an extra frame.

The Steelheads stayed perfect in overtime when Brandan Kushniruk picked up a rebound and popped the puck into the net at 2:30 of the overtime period. The goal was the fourth for Kushniruk, and was assisted by Spurgeon and Tousignant. The overtime win was the second this season for the Steelheads; the first was on October 31 in Alaska.

Richard Bachman improves to 8-2-1 with the win; he stopped 30 shots in the game. David Shantz falls to 1-1-1; he made 44 saves in a losing effort.

The Steelheads will head on the road to take on the Stockton Thunder in a three-game set beginning Wednesday night, November 25. Idaho returns home to take on the Alaska Aces on December 3.