A comeback worthy of a Stanley Cup final wasn't enough to help a Kamloops man win big on the popular game show Jeopardy on Monday night.

Instead, Mike Garrett had to content himself with coming in second against Cindy Vanderbur of Madison, Ind. But he was able to best Dan Adkinson, a copy editor from Brooklyn, N.Y., who won the previous three games.

After two auditions in two years, Garrett travelled to L.A. the week before Christmas to record the episode. He was sworn to secrecy about the outcome, but Jeopardy fans and Kamloops residents knew the results by the time the drama played out at 8 p.m.

Garrett recorded the episode earlier in the day, and showed it to a house full of guests Monday. He said the hardest part of the night was watching himself on TV.

"That's pretty surreal," said Garrett.

As for the game, Garrett got off to a shaky start. By the first commercial break, he was $1,800 in the hole, something he attributes to being slow on the buzzer.

Vanderbur, who ended up the episode's victor, had no difficulty with hers.

"She is a master at the buzzer," said Garrett.

Garrett managed to come back in the second round, finding himself up $1,400 by the time he hit the Daily Double. He bet it all and got the answer wrong.

But he managed to come back again, clawing his way into second place and coming in first at Final Jeopardy.

"I was pretty much playing for second," he said.