The Aldergrove Kodiaks badly needed a win and their efforts paid off Wednesday night against the Mission City Outlaws.
The game was scoreless until the 11th minute of the third period when Kodiak Clayton Schroeder scored the winner on a breakaway while the Kodiaks were short-handed. He was assisted by Cole Pisiak.
The Kodiaks had outshot the Outlaws in every frame and neither team scored on power plays, with three for the Outlaws and five for the Kodiaks.
The Outlaws pulled keeper Matthew Trulsen in the final 90 seconds to give them the man-advantage, but instead the Kodiaks fired three shots that narrowly missed the empty net.
Kodiaks keeper Michael Laureate earned the game’s second star for stopping all 23 of the Outlaws’ shots on his net and Schroeder was the first star.
The win improves the Kodiaks standing to 23 points after 31 games (10-18-1-2) and while the Kodiaks remain in fifth place in the Harold Brittain conference they have a couple games in hand. Langley Trappers moved up to third place (25 points) with their 10-1 win over the Surrey Knights tonight, bumping Mission down to the fourth place (also 25 points).
Next up for the Kodiaks is this weekend’s PJHL Winter Classic at Richmond Arena, with games against Langley on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Abbotsford on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Aldergrove’s next home game is Jan. 10 against the Surrey Knights, 7:15 p.m. at Aldergrove Arena.
