The Mission City Outlaws have their backs against the wall in the PJHL playoffs as the squad finds itself down 3-1 to the Ridge Meadows Flames in the Harold Brittain conference semi-final.
The Outlaws dropped both home games in the best-of-seven series at Mission Leisure Centre and split a pair at Cam Neely Arena Planet Ice in Maple Ridge.
On Tuesday night in Mission, the Outlaws fell behind late in the first period and couldn’t recover —the Flames finished with a 5-1 victory. Jordan Kujala’s pair of second period goals led the Flames to victory while Theo Kochan scored his fifth of the series for Ridge Meadows.
Kujala notched a game high three points on two goals and an assist, while Kochan (1 G 1 A), David Stepputat (1 G 1 A) and Jack Foster (2 A) each tallied two points. Flames’ netminder Cam Connolly was sharp throughout the game and stopped 29 of 30 shots faced.
READ MORE: Outlaws squander four-goal lead and fall to Flames in double overtime
Pierce Whyte opened the scoring with less than three minutes remaining in the first period and Kujala scored twice in the second to give the Flames a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Kochan found the back of the net on the power play in the third period and Stepputat scored less than two minutes later to give Ridge Meadows a 5-0 lead. Rowan Zapisocki got Mission on the board midway through the final frame but the Flames held on to win 5-1 after outshooting the Outlaws 42-30.
Game five of the best-of-seven series is slated for Friday night (March 3) at 7:30 p.m at Cam Neely Arena Planet Ice, with game six coming back to Mission on Saturday (March 4) if necessary.
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dillon.white@missioncityrecord.com
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