Despite a blowout win at home on Sunday night, the Mission City Outlaws have been eliminated from the Pacific Junior Hockey League playoffs.
The Outlaws found themselves down three games to one to the division-leading Aldergrove Kodiaks on Wednesday night in Aldergrove.
It was the second-straight must-win situation for the local squad, but they fell short, losing the game 7-4 and the series four games to one.
The Outlaws found themselves down 5-2 after two periods and pulled out all the stops to try to stay alive in the series.
Third-period goals by Nathan McCarnan and Sammy Zeinab narrowed Aldergrove’s lead to 5-4, but that was all the offence Mission could muster. Aldergrove scored two empty-net goals to end the game and the series,
Ryan Sharma and Kyle Dosanjh scored the other Mission goals.
In game four on Sunday night, with their backs against the wall, the Mission City Outlaws came out with all guns blazing.
The defending Pacific Junior Hockey League champions lived to fight another day, with an impressive 8-0 rout of the Aldergrove Kodiaks at the Mission Leisure Centre.
Mission went into Sunday’s game down 3-0 in the best-of-seven opening-round series, and were in a win-or-go-home situation.
Trailing in a series is nothing new to the Outlaws, as they opened last year down 3-0 to the Ridge Meadows Flames before coming back to win that series and eventually the PJHL championship.
Sammy Zeinab and Micheal Hamm put the Outlaws up 2-0 after one on Sunday, with Kyle Lennea making it 3-0 after two. Mission then exploded in the third period, with Zeinab, Hamm, Michal Holub, Justin Bowerman and Matthew Mason all scoring to make it 8-0.
The loss was the worst all season long for the top-ranked Kodiaks.
The Outlaws chased Kodiaks goalie Dawson Rodin after the second period, as he allowed three goals on 20 shots.
Replacement Caleb Ziemann was scored on five times in the final period.
Mission goalie Keaton Dyck was stellar on Sunday, stopping all 47 shots the Kodiaks fired on him for the shutout.
The Outlaws opened the series in Aldergrove on Feb. 14, falling 8-5, and found themselves down 2-0 in the series after losing 4-1 in Aldergrove on Feb. 15. The series shifted to Mission on Feb. 18 for game three, which the Outlaws lost 5-3.
Game three saw Outlaws goalie Matthew Trulsen face an incredible 66 shots in the loss. Mission goalies have faced a lot of rubber in the series, as the Outlaws have allowed an average of 48 shots per game in the series.
Bowerman, Zeinab and Jackson Waniek have been carrying the load offensively for the Outlaws with six, five and five points respectively.