Kodiaks Advance

The Aldergrove Kodiaks are through to the PJHL championships after eliminating the defending Keystone Cup Champions the Abbotsford Pilots with a 4-1 victory.

They lost game one to Abby but the Kodiaks won the next four straight games to complete the series win, advancing them to play against either the Richmond Sockeyes or the Delta Ice Hawks. Richmond came back twice from a goal deficit to defeat Delta 6-5 to take a 3 to 1 lead in the Tom Shaw Conference finals. Game four goes Thursday night at Minoru Arena where they can wrap up the series.

In Abbotsford the Kodiaks opened up a 3-0 lead and extended it to 4-0 after two periods before the Pilots finally got on the scoreboard late in the final period.

Aldergrove eliminated the Pilots the any further post-season play-off action. Scoring for the Kodiaks 45 seconds in were Spencer McHaffie only to be followed by Simpson and McHaffie who managed to add late goals a minute apart in the final two minutes of the period.

The Kodiaks “D” was solid all night getting solid goalkeeping from Menicucci where he was 5 for 5 on shots. The first saw the Kodiaks outshot the Pilots 11-5 in the first while Pilots goalkeeper Aaron Oakley made 8 saves on 11 shots.

The Kodiaks scored the only goal of the second extending their lead to 4-0 which was far too much for the Pilots.
Kodiaks Spencer McHaffie scored his second of the night just two minutes in as the Kodiaks “D” continued to shut down the Pilots. Strong offence along with solid goalkeeping from Mark Menicucci saw the Kodiaks dominate the second; holding a 17-5 edge in shots.

Abby “keeper” Aaron Oakley finished the period making 6 saves and if not for his stellar play the score could have been easily doubled. They continued to hold the lead after 40 minutes, but eventually the Pilots got on the board with 6:57 remaining.
Dasse beat Menicucci to break the shutout as the final score read 4-1 for the Kodiaks and the final shot tally in the third was 8-5 for the Pilots.

Overall final shots were 33-18 for Aldergrove with Mark Menicucci of the Kodiaks finishing with 17 saves. The win see’s Aldergrove advance to the League Finals.