It would seem that the Aldergrove Kodiaks are mired in single-point games in the first quarter of their season.
They battled the Harold Brittain conference leading Langley Knights to a 4-4 tie on Thursday (Oct. 23) at George Preston Arena, giving each team a single point for the night. The Kodiaks now stand at 12 points after 14 games (3-5-2-4), and the Knights lead with 19 points after 13 games (9-3-1-0).
A lot of the credit has to go to the Kodiaks’ new starting goalie, Ben Giesbrecht, who stopped 53 of the Knights’ 57 shots and earned himself the game’s second star. For the first time in a long time the Kodiaks were outshot, with 44 shots on the Knights’ net.
The Kodiaks were unable to score on their five power plays, while the Knights scored on both of their two power plays.
The Kodiaks opened the scoring early in the first period, when Jordan Funk netted the puck at 1:02, assisted by Cameron Davitt and Eric Callegari.
However, the Knights scored the next three goals before Jacon Cronin netted another in the dying minutes of the first, assisted by Maximillian Fritz and Dylan Geiger.
Down 3-2 at the start of the second, the Kodiaks evened it up at 7:14 with the period’s only goal, scored by Brandon Dolby, assisted by Geiger and Nolan Wallinger.
The Knights netted the first goal of the third period, but the Kodiaks replied two minutes later to even it up again. Kodiaks’ scorer was Elvis Jansons, assisted by captain Aaron Markin and Joshua Poitras.
The two overtime periods were scoreless, giving each team a point for the draw.
The Kodiaks host the Delta Ice Hawks, Wednesday, Oct. 29 at Aldergrove Arena, followed by the Richmond Sockeyes, Wednesday, Nov. 5. Puck drops at 7:15 p.m.
The Kodiaks’ next away game is on Saturday, Nov. 8 against the North Vancouver Wolf Pack at the Harry Jerome Rec Centre.
