Surrey, B.C. – After the holiday break, the Surrey Eagles (14-12-0) began their new year against one of the best teams in the BCHL to try and kickstart the unofficial 2nd half of the 2021-22 BCHL Regular Season. In a game filled with players making their BCHL debut’s for Surrey, the Eagles played one of their best games this season and gutted out a 3-2 shootout win over the Chilliwack Chiefs (15-8-2).
In an unusual turn of events, the Chiefs played the game with only 9 forwards as injuries have continued to take their toll on a Chiefs team which came into the game riding 2 straight wins over the Coastal Conference leading Langley Rivermen. The Eagles didn’t relent at all and had an 11-1 shots advantage after 20 minutes and a 1 goal lead courtesy of a beautiful give and go play between Trent Wilson who finished off the play, and Cole Galata.
The Eagles and Chiefs would exchange goals to wrap up the game, and the overtime solved nothing. In the shootout, Eli Pulver made both saves he was tasked to make while Grayden Slipec and Jake Bongo scored to seal the victory. Primo Self had the 2nd goal in regulation for the Eagles, and Pulver made 20 saves through overtime for his 6th win of the season.
Brett Rylance and Cameron Johnson had goals for the Chiefs to push the game to overtime, while Cole Savage made 33 saves on 35 shots through 65 minutes in the shootout loss. The Eagles outshot the Chiefs 35-22 through 65 minutes, but special teams remained a concern as the Eagles were 0 for 1 on the powerplay and gave up a Chiefs powerplay goal in 3 opportunites.
For Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith, Sunday afternoon’s game was a great way to kick off their unofficial start to their season. “Our young guys stepped up tonight, our affiliated players did a great job filling important roles on the backend, and Eli Pulver was good when he needed to be.”
Another story in the game was the BCHL debut’s of 2 young affiliated defenseman for the Eagles. Jacob Bonkowski’s 15 year old brother Rylan Bonkowski, who plays with the Burnaby Winter Clubs U18 team in the CSSHL made his debut along with Valley West Giants 16 year old defenseman Landen Hilditch, who played in the 2021 pre-season with Surrey. Both players had big games and didn’t look out of place against one of the best teams in the BCHL. Cam Keith was impressed with the way they played in the game which could’ve gotten out of hand, and the way his veteran defenders in the lineup picked up the slack. “The defense had poise tonight. Landen and Rylan didn’t look out of place because they were comfortable with the puck and didn’t panic. They moved it to the right spots and didn’t try to do too much. I believe they fed off some of our veteran players; Tate Taylor had a strong game and everyone as a whole was doing the small things which allowed us to be successful and everyone grabbed the rope and pulled.”
This is a team which knows there are no more excuses, and Sunday was a step in the right direction. Cam made sure to make that point known as his team looks to try and secure better playoff positioning throughout 2022. “It’s huge to get a win today. Our goal is to get home ice right now so we need to continue to rack up points throughout the rest of the season as every game from here on out will be against teams in our conference.”
The Eagles will look to ride their strong start to 2022 into next weekend as they’ll begin a 3 game weekend at home against the Chilliwack Chiefs. The rematch is scheduled for 7:00pm inside the South Surrey Arena, as it’ll be Telus Jersey Giveaway Night! Tickets are limited for the game, and if you can’t make it inside the South Surrey Arena you can watch the broadcast live on BCHL TV (Powered by HockeyTV), and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl.
