Mission’s Gage Gonclaves and the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds are moving on to the second round.
The club swept the Greater Vancouver Canadians 2-0 in the British Columbia Hockey Major Midget League’s first-round best-of-three series with wins in Langley on Saturday and Sunday.
The Thunderbirds opened the series with a 2-1 win in game one on Saturday, but the Canadians gave Fraser Valley a scare.
After a scoreless first period, the Birds went up 1-0 when Chilliwack’s Jason Bowen lit the lamp, with Abbotsford product Will Dow-Kenny and Mission’s Gonclaves drawing the assists.
Greater Vancouver tied the game late in the second with a power play goal, and the game remained tied until midway through the third.
Langley’s Carter Anderson notched the game-winning goal at 10:12 of the third, with Abbotsford’s Matthew Konrad and Chilliwack’s Jackson Mainse recording the helpers.
Starting goalie Dawson Pelletier from Hope shut the door for the rest of the game to ensure the win.
“We had a plan in place and they executed it real well,” said Thunderbirds head coach Peter Hay, citing the fact the team was back-checking, blocking shots and providing solid defensive zone coverage.
Game two saw Fraser Valley score three unanswered goals over the final two periods to win 4-1 and eliminate the Canadians.
Abbotsford’s Jake Mulder opened the scoring at 14:11 of the first, with Abby’s Andrew Sorensen and Maple Ridge’s Emmett Garrett picking up the assists.
The Canadians tied the game early into the second, but Gonclaves and Dow-Kenny added goals in the second period to put Fraser Valley up for good.
Konrad and Chilliwack’s Travis Halladay picked up assists on both Thunderbirds second-period goals.
Abbotsford’s Justin Plett scored the lone goal in the third to make it a 4-1 final. Pelletier was again solid in goal and earned the win.
“I felt the Canadians had a tough time handling our speed and intensity,” Hay said, crediting Greater Vancouver goaltender Jesse Makaj for keeping the Thunderbirds from pulling away in both games.
“We were in the offensive zone quite a bit … the Canadians goalie stood on his team.”
The Thunderbirds now move on to the semifinals, where they will host the Vancouver NorthWest Giants.
The two teams met four times in the regular season, with the Fraser Valley winning each encounter. The most recent result was a 6-1 Fraser Valley win on Dec. 17.
“At the end of the day, playoff hockey brings different things and they have been very hot coming into this playoff run,” Hay said.
“We are not going to take them lightly.
“I think we match up well but they have a hot goalie and they have a team that has been playing very well.”
The best-of-three series opens on Friday at 7 p.m., with game two scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m.
Game three, if necessary, occurs on Sunday at 2 p.m. All games occur at the George Preston Recreation Centre in Langley.
The winner of the Thunderbirds-Giants series will then take on the winner of the Vancouver NorthEast Chiefs and Cariboo Cougars series in the BCMML final.