The Abbotsford Pilots sent a league-high eight players to the Pacific Junior Hockey League all-star game, and the locals excelled on home ice at MSA Arena.
Pilots content on the Harold Brittain Conference all-star squad included forwards Brad Parker, Braeden Monk, Kolten Grieve and Jarrett Martin; defencemen Austin Edwards, Ryan Parmar and Eric Wieking; and goalie Zachary Station.
They helped the Brittain team to a 10-8 victory over the Tom Shaw Conference on Monday evening, with Grieve (four assists), Monk (one goal, two assists), Parker (three assists) and Edwards (three assists) each notching at least three points. Station split the goaltending chores with Tyler Read of the Ridge Meadows Flames, with each surrendering four goals.
Travis Oddy of Ridge Meadows potted a hat trick and an assist to earn the player of the game award for the Brittain squad, while John Wesley of the Richmond Sockeyes (two goals, two assists) was the Shaw honouree.
WEEKEND SPLIT
The Pilots (20-10-4) are coming off a week where they split their two games.
Last Friday, they dropped a hard-fought 5-4 decision to the Brittain Conference-leading Aldergrove Kodiaks (26-5-3), who prevailed on the strength of Spencer Unger's power-play goal with 5:04 left in the third period. Parker, Brady Lawlor, Jared Virtanen and Joel Balzer scored the Abby goals.
The Pilots bounced back with a 5-3 road win over the North Delta Devils the next night, building a 51-36 edge in shots and getting goals from Monk, Parker, Grieve, Lawlor and Philip Gauthier.
PANTHERS COMING TO TOWN
The Pilots have just one game this week – they host the Port Moody Panthers on Friday (7:30 p.m., MSA Arena).