Surrey, BC – Despite a second straight first-rate performance by goaltender Tommy Scarfone, the Surrey Eagles came up just short on Friday night against the B.C. Hockey League-leading Coquitlam Express who skated off the ice at the South Surrey Arena with a 4-3 overtime victory.
Coquitlam’s Massimo Rizzo, clearly his team’s best player on the night, provided the heroics 2:15 into the extra three-on-three session. After Surrey’s Sean Ramsay fired wide on a two-on-one, the puck exited the Express zone and right onto Rizzo’s stick for what was effectively a two-on-none. Scarfone had no chance as Rizzo, drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the seventh round of last June’s NHL draft, skated in with speed and ripped a beauty top shelf to improve Coquitlam’s league-best record to 20-5. With the loss, Surrey fell to 8-13-1-3, but in doing so still picked up a point for the fifth straight game.
“Tommy was amazing. He has really solidified himself as our No. 1 goalie right now. It’s time [to declare it],” said Eagles head coach Cam Keith, who spent the early part of the season more or less juggling his team’s netminding duties between Scarfone and fellow rookie Cal Schell. “He’s earned it. He’s put consistent games in. That’s two games in a row now that you can legit say he earned us the point. He’s been our best player two games in a row, which we need. We’re a young team that needs our goalie to keep us in games.”
Scarfone, who was making his fifth start in succession, followed up his 38-save performance in last Sunday’s 2-1 OT loss to the Langley Rivermen by stopping 43 of the 47 shots Coquitlam fired at him. Surrey, meanwhile, managed only 24 shots at Coquitlam netminder Clay Stevenson.
Plus, Scarfone was the victim of an own-goal which brought Coquitlam level at 3-3 with less than seven minutes remaining in the third period. Scarfone blocked a bullet of a shot off the stick of Coquitlam’s Danny Pearson with his shoulder, but the puck bounced high into the air in front his net. Surrey defenseman Owen Nolan attempted to leap up and bat it away with his glove but just as he went to do so was pushed from behind, and as his coach said with a chuckle, “He slam-dunked it!” behind his netminder.
For Nolan, it was a bittersweet conclusion to a big night personally, as only 78 seconds earlier he had scored his first BCHL goal. Nolan, who has already committed to playing NCAA Division I hockey for Army after next season, jumped up into the play and after taking a sweet pass from Kenny Riddett rifled a heavy wrist shot past Stevenson to propel the Eagles into that 3-2 lead.
Surrey led 2-0 after the first period on a pair of goals from its top line. Good forechecking created Express turnovers that first Hudson Schandor and then Cristophe Tellier parked behind Stevenson. Holden Katzalay, the third member of the trio and who is leading the team in scoring, assisted on both goals.
As was to be expected, Coquitlam picked up their game in the second period and drew even on goals by Cooper Connell, who jammed home a rebound just seconds after an Eagles’ penalty expired early in the period, and by Greg Lapointe, who deflected a shot from the point past Scarfone midway through the period.
“I thought at times we were good and I thought at times we watched the game and let Coquitlam kind of dictate the play. So, it was kind of an up and down kind of game that way, us pushing and then when we let up we really let up and it showed,” said Keith, who tipped his hat to the league-leaders. “They are big and strong, their D are all mobile and can move pucks, and they play within themselves all the time. It’s not a lot of cross-ice stuff. They chip pucks in and they grind you. They’re well coached.”
“Given how well we played them last game [a 4-1 Eagles victory on Oct. 25], and even though that might have been a bit of an off game for them, I thought we’d give a little better effort against them at home tonight, but the end result is a point against the best team in the league.”
In a bit of an odd scheduling twist, the Eagles go from facing the league’s leading team to facing the BCHL cellar-dwelling Merritt Centennials on Sunday afternoon at The Nest, in what will be the fifth game of a six-game homestand.
