The Aldergrove Kodiaks are securely set for next month鈥檚 PJHL playoffs after defeating the visiting White Rock Whalers 6-3 Wednesday at Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre.
This year鈥檚 playoffs will be a crossover series instead of the elimination series between the top four teams in each division of previous years. This means the top eight teams in both the Harold Brittain and Tom Shaw conferences will crossover to pit the overall first team against the overall eighth team, second against the seventh, etc.
Aldergrove and Ridge Meadows Flames are currently in seventh and eighth places, respectively, while North Vancouver Wolf Pack and Richmond Sockeyes are in first and second place. These teams could swap places though as there are a handful of games left in the regular season before playoffs begin in February.
Aldergrove has 39 points after 39 games for 19 wins and a tie.
In Wednesday鈥檚 tilt against the Whalers, Aldergrove outplayed and outshot the Whalers 38-29. Neither team scored on their power plays.
Aldergrove鈥檚 Clayton Schroeder was the game鈥檚 first star for a pair of goals, and Kodiak Brayden Szabados was second star for his pair of assists.
Scoring for Aldergrove were Schroeder (2), Lucas Thompson, Dayton Spink, Tyler Cannon, plus an empty-netter from Mathieu Melanson in the game鈥檚 dying minutes.
Assists were from DJ Horne (2), Nate Castonguay, Dayton Spink (2), Paulvir Dosanjh, Szabados (2), Haydn Downing, Davin Padgham, and Benjamin Weys.
The Aldergrove Kodiaks have five remaining regular season games left, including a road trip to White Rock to play the Whalers this Saturday at Centennial Arena.
