Aldergrove Kodiaks Hayden Vetterl and Justin Ralph notched a pair of short-handed goals in the second period to take a 3-1 lead over Mission, but the visiting Outlaws went on to take four unanswered goals for their 5-3 win, Sept. 12.
It was game three in the Kodiaks’ 11th PJHL season and their second home ice loss to put the Kodiaks at two points in the Harold Brittain conference.
The Kodiaks outshot the Outlaws 42-37 but the task of fending off seven Outlaws’ power plays eventually took its toll. The Kodiaks were unable to score on their three power plays.
Mission opened the scoring just 37 seconds into the game but Kodiak Jesse Conroy answered it 12 minutes later with a goal on Outlaw keeper Matthew Trulsen, with assists from Sydney Lee and Benjamin Meng.
Aldergrove scored the pair of short-handed goals early in the second period, with the first when Vetterl was knocked down to the ice in front of the Outlaws’ goal but managed to snap the puck past Trulsen anyway. Four minutes later the Kodiaks stole the puck at centre ice and took it to the net where Ralph put it past Trulsen.
Assists on those two short-handed goals were from Ralph, Vetterl and Davin Padgham (2).
However, the Outlaws managed to even the score at 3-3 before the end of the second period.
Then in the third period the Outlaws scored on a power play after a messy brawl that earned 10 minute misconducts for Outlaw Tristan Takats and Kodiak Jesse Conroy. And a badly timed line change resulted in a stumble over the puck that Outlaws Maximilian Corazza shot past the Kodiaks net minder Michael Lauriente. The Kodiaks pulled their goalie for the last 1:20 of the game but were unable to make good with the man advantage, for the 3-5 loss.
Kodiak Justin Ralph was the game’s second star.
Kodiak travel to Port Moody to take on the Panthers this Saturday, before returning home for a tilt against North Vancouver Wolf Pack at Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 7:15 p.m. puck drop.
