Double-overtime Game 7 loss ends Surrey Knights’ winning hockey season
Published 10:56 am Monday, March 16, 2026
The junior hockey season is over for Surrey Knights after a long, dramatic series with Mission City Outlaws, who won Game 7 in double overtime Sunday night (March 15) at North Surrey Sport & Ice Complex.
The PJHL teams went the distance in a Round 2 series where the winner will now face White Rock Whalers for the conference championship in the two-tier league.
Mission forward Cooper Crowe scored the series-winning goal halfway through the fifth period of Sunday’s game, which Surrey had tied 2-2 late in the third with a huge goal by Kris Ramos. Noah Cook scored Surrey’s other goal in the first period.
“Tough way to end the season,” Knights owner John Craighead told the Now-Leader. “(We) dropped our third straight overtime game last night. Huge congratulations to (Mission) on a relentless comeback after being down 3-1 in the series. That’s playoff hockey at its finest, resilience, belief and heart.
“Proud of our players, staff and supporters for the battle all season long. We left everything on the ice. Heads up, we regroup, learn and come back stronger.”
Against Mission, Surrey led the best-of-seven series 3-1 before the Outlaws battled back to win the fifth, sixth and seventh games to extend an emotional season in which the team lost coach Martin Hak, who died last November in a car crash in Maple Ridge.
The Andy Liboiron-coached Knights played well all season, earning 30 wins in 44 games to finish second in the eight-team Harold Brittain Conference, seven points behind the Whalers.
In the post-season, the Knights won a Round 1 series over North Vancouver Wolf Pack before facing Mission.
This year, Surrey enjoyed winning a lot of games after several seasons of struggling in the PJHL.
“It’s testament to the guys, them putting in the work and having the perseverance to handle the adversity over the last few years, and it’s nice to see them get rewarded,” Liboiron, in his fifth season as Knights head coach, said before playoffs began.
Sunday’s heartbreaking loss was the final game in junior for several 2005-born players including Knights team leaders Kirit Sran, Parkor Sarai and Bronson Sales.
“They’ve really helped build the culture that we want, and it’s really cool to see them develop over the last four years, turning from kids to men,” Liboiron raved in a February interview.
Sran led the Knights in playoff scoring with 22 points in 12 games (one goal, 21 assists), followed by Sales (13 goals and six assists for 19 points) and Sarai (nine goals, nine assists, 18 points). In net, Koen St. Hilaire’s save percentage was a solid 0.928 in 753 minutes of post-season action, with one shutout along the way.
Now focused on next season, the Knights will hold a 2026 Spring ID Camp April 10-12 at Surrey Sport & Leisure Centre in Fleetwood, for players born between 2007 and 2011. The $300 fee includes three games, an all-star game, one development skate and a dryland session. Detatils are posted on surreyknights.ca.