The Pembina Valley Hawks had their backs against the wall and showed what they were made of with a 7-4 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings.

"We knew coming into it that if we lost we were out. So, we played with a lot of desperation and played really hard," said forward Caleb Unrau.

It all started short-handed for the Hawks, when Kolton Shindle got a break, made a move around the defender, drove the net and tucked one past the Brandon goaltender to take a 1-0 lead for the home team. Shortly after Jaymes Knee tallied his first of three in the game for the Wheat Kings to tie the game. Then before the period was half gone Elijah Carels capitalized on a Caleb Unrau faceoff win and put it top shelf to regain the Hawks lead. Once again the visiting team was able to bring the game back even. Knee scored his second of the game and period.

In the middle frame Pembina Valley tallied a pair of times, Nicholas Hatley and Unrau were able to beat Max Paddock, who made 28 saves in the loss for Brandon. Meanwhile, Knee would complete the hat trick and Lynden McCallum also found the back of the net and the two teams headed to the dressing rooms after 40 tied at four.

Pembina Valley went to work in the final twenty minutes and scored three times to not only take the lead but add a pair of insurance markers along the way. Carels scored what would be the game-winner. Just over a minute after Sven Schefer beat Paddock. Travis Penner would add another insurance marker 16:21 into the period, with Garrett Szeremley picking up his fourth assist of the game on the Hawks seventh goal.

It was evident the Hawks didn't want their season to come to an end Tuesday night. 

"That's kind of the message we delivered. We are on our backs here and we don't want to have to look at each other after the game and know there was something that we held back," said head coach Rylan Price. "I think the boys are coming together here. This was a big one for us. We needed one to get us going."

Game four of this series goes Thursday night in Brandon with puck drop at 7:30 p.m.