The Pilots improved to 8-1-2 this past week, good for 2nd place in the PJHL standings, after wins against Surrey and North Van.
Thursday night in Surrey started off in the Knights’ favour, as Nolan Sokugawa and Jett Bates scored within 30 seconds of each other to end the first period. The Pilots responded with 6 (!) unanswered goals: Porter Muxlow tallied with 3 minutes to go in the second frame, with 3rd period goals from himself again, Willem Bagnall, Noah Weinberger, Rhys Riedel, and Preston Muxlow. The Pilots would hold on for a 6-2 victory on the road, ending Surrey’s 7-game win streak in dominant fashion.
Friday night at MSA featured a tight contest between the Pilots and the North Van Wolf Pack. North Van opened the scoring with a power play marker from Cameron Hacker late in the first period. Caleb Fedrau responded for the Pilots, before North Van retook the lead 2 minutes later courtesy of Lucas Davidson, once again on the power play. Charlie Paul would deadlock the game at 2, a score that remained all the way until the shootout. Ryan Tse beat Jaxson Lafortune for the Wolf Pack, but it was not enough as goals from Porter Muxlow and Charlie Paul secured the 3-2 victory at home.
After five weeks of play, Cody Johnston remains in the lead in the PJHL scoring race with 26 points, followed closely by Cloverdale’s Matthew Shehyn with 23. Porter Muxlow is in third place with 22. 2010-born Jaxson Lafortune places himself among the top goalies in the league with a 6-0-1 record, 0.921sv% (2nd best) and 2.68 goals against average (3rd best).
The Pilots have three upcoming games, where they will look to extend their winning streak. The team is in Aldergrove on Wednesday, before returning home to host the Surrey Knights on Friday. The weekend ends on Sunday with a visit to Port Moody to take on the Panthers for the first time this season.
