The Mission City Outlaws squandered a two goal lead with less than five minutes remaining on Saturday night (Jan. 15) and lost 5-4 to the Chilliwack Jets in an important game for playoff seeding at Mission Leisure Centre. The Jets scored twice in the final minute to complete the comeback.
Zach Feaver’s two goals led Chilliwack to victory while Jets’ forward Brendan Williamson’s one goal and two assists yielded a game-high three points. The Jets outshot the Outlaws 44-26 and Mission’s Max Fowle made 39 saves in a losing effort.
Williamson opened the scoring just 24 seconds into the game with his 25th goal of the season. However, Brayden Candy provided a quick answer for Mission about three minutes later. The back-and-forth first period continued with Feaver’s first goal of the game to give Chilliwack a 2-1 lead but Mission evened the score at 2 heading into the intermission with a goal from Kyle Sackmann.
READ MORE: Outlaws outlast Sockeyes in overtime
In the second period, Cole Moffat gave the Outlaws their first lead of the game. James Veitch extended the lead to 4-2 with his seventh of the season heading into the third period.
The Outlaws maintained their lead for the majority of the final frame but Damian Metastasio scored his 21st of the season just over 16 minutes into the period on an assist from Williamson to cut the lead in half. With time running out, Feaver tied the game on the power play with 42 seconds left in regulation. Just 19 seconds later, Kaelan Huibers potted the game-winner unassisted to give the Jets the comeback win.
With the win, Chilliwack pulls even with Mission at 40 points on the season. Both teams have played 38 games thus far, but the Outlaws hold on to third place in the PJHL’s Harold Brittain conference because they have three more wins than the Jets. With 10 games remaining in the regular season, the Outlaws and Jets have an 18 point cushion on the fifth place Surrey Knights.
Mission will now pay a visit to the Knights on Thursday night (Jan. 19) at North Surrey Rec Centre at 7:00 p.m. before hosting the Delta Ice Hawks on Saturday (Jan. 21) at 6:45 p.m. at Mission Leisure Centre.
@dillon_white
dillon.white@missioncityrecord.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.