BCHL

Eagles win twice as they prepare for playoffs

Written by BCHLNetwork Staff on

The Surrey Eagles played three games last week and won two of those games. The team took on the Chilliwack Chiefs, who they’ll meet in the opening round of the playoffs, on Family Day Monday. They then took on the Coquitlam Express on Wednesday before finishing the season with a game in Langley against the Rivermen.

5-2 win against the Chiefs

The Eagles are set to face off the Chiefs in the first round of the BCHL playoffs and a Family Day game presented a preview. Reece Klassen started the week off strong for the Eagles with 31 saves in the game. The Eagles opened the scoring on a first period goal from Brandon Santa Juana. Close to a minute later, Santa Juana assisted on Carter King’s goal to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. But then Nikita Nesterenko cut the lead in half for Chilliwack.

The Eagles took a two goal lead once again thanks to a tally from Christian Fitzgerald, his third of the season. The game got a little rough as both sides had players head to the box in the second period. It escalated when Chiefs defencemen Cooper Moore was ejected after a hit on Adamo Santia, which gave Surrey a five minute power play.

The third period started with Nicholas Cherkowski scoring the Chiefs second goal of the night. Captain Hudson Schandor scored 24th of the night and was followed up by Buddy Johnson’s sixth goal of the season to cap off the night and lead the Eagles to a win.

3-1 win against the Coquitlam Express

The Eagles visited the Express in Coquitlam for a road game on Wednesday. Thomas Scarfone got the start in the game and posted 29 saves in the win over the BCHL’s top team.

The first period was scoreless, but the second period saw Wyatt Schlaht get his tenth goal of the season to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. The Express tied the game up 58 seconds into the third period on a goal from Steven Bellini.

King found the score sheet in this game as well, scoring two goals. The first came less than a minute after Bellini’s game-tying goal and the second goal came in the last minute on an empty netter.

3-2 overtime loss to Langley

The Surrey Eagles season finale came in an overtime loss to the Rivermen. Langley took the lead in the second period on a goal from Joseph Musa on the power play. Not too long after, Schandor tied the game to end the period and Cristophe Tellier assisted on the goal to give him 100 points in his BCHL career.

In the third, Tanner Versluis’s power play goal gave the Rivermen the lead back. However, Tellier scored a shorthanded goal with 12 seconds remaining in the game to tie it and send it into overtime. Although Tellier scored a clutch goal for the Eagles, the penalty kill couldn’t hold the Rivermen off, allowing them to score their third power play goal of the game from Jake Livingstone to win in the extra frame. The penalty kill struggled for the Eagles as the Rivermen went 3-for-6 with the man advantage.

Eagles gear up for first round of the playoffs

The Eagles finished off the regular season with a 13-6-2 record since the calendar flipped to 2020 and are heading into a playoffs series against a Chilliwack Chiefs team they have beaten six straight times. Game one is Friday, Feb. 28 as the Eagles hit the road to Chilliwack.