U18 Canadians Bounce Back with Huge Exhibition Victory vs. Bieksa and U18 Fairmont Academy

A dramatic goal with 25.8 seconds left in regulation by A.J. Abell completed the U18 AAA Greater Vancouver Canadians' comeback, as GVC defeated the U18 Fairmont Academy California hockey club 6-5 in exhibition action on Sunday at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

The Canadians had lost 9-2 to the U18 Valley West Giants a week earlier, on Friday, September 6, so Sunday's victory was a nice bounce-back for the club. 

The Fairmont club, a High School Division I team in the Anaheim Ducks HS Hockey Association, is coached by former NHL player Kevin Bieksa. 

GVC fell behind 3-0 just 23 seconds into the second period—but did not give up. 

Nishaan Gill scored five minutes into the second period to get GVC on the scoreboard, before A.J. Abell got the first of two goals with 5:31 left in the same stanza to pull GVC to within a goal. Vlad Ursache tied things up on a power-play goal three minutes into the third, but Fairmont scored on a breakaway just19 seconds later to go ahead 4-3. 

Kaden Meyer, though scored the tying goal two minutes later to make it 4-4. Fairmont looked to be in the driver's seat with a goal with 6:24 left, but Luca Martyniuk tied the game for GVC just 22 seconds later. 

With the game appeared to finish 5-5 after regulation, Abell instead notched his second of the game with only 25.8 seconds remaining for GVC's first lead of the entire contest.

Alan Peregrym was outstanding in goal for GVC, facing 49 shots on the day, including 22 in the third period alone. But the 5’9” goaltender stood tall, stopping 20 of those 22 shots in the final period to help keep GVC in the game. 

The U18 Canadians will take on the Cariboo Cougars in the regular-season opening series on September 21-22 at the Richmond Oval. The Saturday game starts at 2:30 p.m. and the Sunday game begins at 8:30 a.m. Both games can be seen on playfullscreen.com.