Burnaby, B.C. – Coming off their first loss of the 2021 Pod Season presented by Shaw, the Eagles looked for revenge against the Powell River Kings on Wednesday night. It took the full 60 minutes, and some top tier defense in the final minute, but the Eagles held on for a 5-4 win in a back & forth game inside the Scotiabarn.
The Eagles made it clear they wanted to come out to a better start, and they did just that when Brandon Santa Juana opened the scoring on a breakaway against Kings starter Jakob Depreau. The teams traded goals in the 2nd period off the sticks of Josh Kagan and Tio D’Addario and the score remained close. This set up an absolutely wild 3rd period between two high powered teams.
The Eagles proceeded to score on three of their first four shots in the final period. D’Addario got his 2nd of the game, followed by Holden Katzalay and Christian Fitzgerald to make it 5-1 and seemingly put the game out of reach. However, the Kings followed with goals from Branden Toye, Nic Porchetta, and former Eagle Adamo Santia to make it interesting. In the end, Surrey locked it down and played strong in front of their rookie netminder.
It was a big night in goal for the Eagles, with Hunter Tarves making his BCHL debut and pulling through with the victory. When asked on his initial thoughts on the win, Eagles head coach immediately shouted out his goaltender. “I’m excited for Hunter on getting his first BCHL win.”
Another adjustment the Eagles made was playing a cleaner hockey game. Cam made note of the adjustment. “We focused on making smarter decisions with the puck in crucial areas. We were better but still need to improve on our game management.”
Cam attributed the 3 late goals to fatigue related turnovers, and hopes the team will make the necessary change ahead of their upcoming slate of games. “Most of our turnovers were caused from fatigue due to extended shifts. With the amount of games we are playing in a short time frame, energy management is crucial.”
Speaking of the upcoming slate of games, the Eagles are back on the ice on Thursday evening against the Coquitlam Express. You can watch the game live on BCHL TV (Powered by HockeyTV) and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl. Puck drop is slated for 7:30 pm inside the Scotiabarn.
