U18 Canadians Season Over With Loss vs. Chiefs

The U18 AAA Greater Vancouver Canadians’ season ended over the weekend when the team lost to the Vancouver NE Chiefs in the first round of the U18 BCEHL playoffs at Burnaby’s Scotia Barn. 

The seventh-seeded Canadians were defeated 6-3 and 7-2, as the second-place Chiefs swept the best-of-three series two games to none.

In the series opener on Friday, the Canadians fell behind 5-0 only to see a valiant third-period comeback fall just short. Down 5-0, the Canadians finally got on the scoreboard with 8:44 left in the second when A.J. Abell set up Jack MacFarlane for GVC’s first goal. Tallies by Maxfeld Shin and Harjun Aujla in the third made it 5-3, but time ran out for the Canadians as the Chiefs added an empty-netter with 18 seconds left for the victory.

On Saturday, A.J. Abell scored twice, but the Chiefs proved to be too strong, particularly in the second period. With the game tied 1-1, the Chiefs scored four times in the second to put the game away. Abell’s second goal of the game midway through the third cut the deficit to 6-2, but GVC was not able to get closer in the eventual 7-2 outcome.

Although the Canadians fell short of achieving their goal of winning the playoff championship, it was still a good year for GVC and its players. After leading all GV players with 13 regular-season goals, A.J. Abell scored twice in the playoffs. During the regular season, Yashas Jain collected a team-leading 32 points while finishing tied with Graham Kilpatrick for second with 12 goals. Lucas Epp finished with a team-high 21 assists, and Jack MacFarlane and Maxfeld Shin each had 11 goals. 

With many of the U18 Canadians players graduating at the end of the season, we wish each of these players all the best as they move on to the next steps of their journeys.