SURREY — On the last weekend before the Christmas break, the Eagles wrapped up a 3-1 “W” over Prince George as a gift to the fans at the South Surrey Arena on Friday night.
While the home crowd has been treated to some dramatic victories this season, this one was different. No overtime required in this one. It was perhaps Surrey’s most complete effort of the year thus far, a game in which the Eagles looked firmly in control for the entirety of the 60-minute contest.
Plenty of players played strong games, but no one contributed more to that 3-1 score than defensemen Latrell Charleson. Charleson has been on a tear of late, wracking up 7 goals and 6 assists in 13 games since returning from a lengthy injury that held him out of ten games previous.
Five of those seven goals have come on the man-advantage, where Charleson has been utilized as a big-body presence in front of the net. If there was some question as to who would fill the void left by departed captain Chase McMurphy on the first unit powerplay, the big defender with a booming shot has silenced them, seizing the opportunity and delivering the goods.
That’s where he scored a pair on Friday. His first goal came at 5:02 of the first period, just over 30 seconds into the Eagles first powerplay of the game. It looked as though defenseman Owen Johnson may have scored his first goal in Surrey colours, but Charleson’s stick caught a piece of it, tipping the puck past Spruce Kings’ goalie Jesse Jenks.
His second came in a similar spot, though this time the shot came off of Charleson’s stick. With time running out in the second period and the Eagles up a man after an unsportsmanlike penalty to Prince George defenseman Daniel Fritz, Charleson ripped a snapper through Jenks from the low slot after Joe Drapluk drove the puck to the middle at 19:40 of the middle frame.
That’s the goal that stretched the lead to 3-1, a score that held up through the third with Eagles goalie Christian Short stopping all 8 shots that came his way in the final period of regulation.
Ben Vikich also scored for Surrey, burying his own rebound at 9:27 of the second for his 10th of the year. Daniel Nachbaur had the lone goal for the Spruce Kings, tucking the puck past Short on the back-end on a breakaway opportunity at 10:48.
The Eagles looked surprisingly poised and confident in this one, especially considering it came just 48 hours after one of their worst games of the year, a 9-0 drubbing at the hands of the Vernon Vipers. One of the lone positives to come out of that game was the improved play of goaltender Short, who has needed some time to round back into form following a lengthy injury.
Short looked to have found that form in the third period on Wednesday in Vernon, and that strong play carried over into Friday’s win. He stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced on the night, earning second-star honours on the night.
The Eagles outshot the Spruce Kings 36 to 24. Their powerplay was 2 for 6, while the Surrey penalty kill was a perfect 5 for 5.
The Eagles return from the Christmas break with a Sunday night game in Chilliwack on December 28th. They return to the SSA for one final game in 2014, when the home-and-home series with the Chiefs heads to Surrey for a Tuesday night contest on December 30th. For tickets, call 604-531-GOAL
