Langley, B.C. – As the Surrey Eagles pre-season winds down, the Eagles have started to heat up ahead of their home opener. In the middle leg of 3 games in 3 days, the Eagles were victorious for a 2nd straight night, thrashing the Langley Rivermen by a score of 7-1.
Despite the Eagles offense coming alive, when Eagles head coach Cam Keith was asked about what his initial thoughts on the game were, he was quick to mention the work of his starting netminder. “Max was amazing tonight. He controlled rebounds, sucked a lot of pucks up and we won a lot of defensive zone draws off his rebound control. We had a lot of confidence in him, so when we gave up a couple of odd man rushes we weren’t worried. It allowed us to be more aggressive in the offensive zone and on our forecheck. He was huge tonight.”
Prazma got the start following Eli Pulver’s great start last night against the Merritt Centennials and didn’t disappoint. Despite Surrey getting outshot 40-30 during the game, Prazma made 39 saves and looked cool throughout, making a couple of great stops late to preserve the lead his team gave him.
His offense gave him a lot of support throughout the evening, as the Eagles got goals from 7 different players en-route to the victory. Trent Wilson, Michael Abgrall, Buddy Johnson and Ben Fontaine scored on the powerplay, which went 4-10 on the night. Cole Galata, Luke Roberts, and Jacob Paler-Chow rounded out the scoring for the Eagles on a night where their offense soared to new heights.
When talking about the power-play, Cam was quick to talk about how impressed he was at his team’s ability to move the puck with the man advantage. “I thought we moved pucks more efficiently tonight. We created a lot of shooting lanes because guys weren’t holding onto pucks and trying to do things individually, it was more of a collective group effort. You could just see the opportunities were there due to our puck movement, and we buried our chances. Trent Wilson played great in the bumper spot. He made a couple quick plays, including a great back door pass to Abgrall. It was fun to watch.”
For Surrey, the wins are nice but the real key to their pre-season has been the improvement in their defensive game. The Eagles have only given up 2 goals in the past 6 periods, and that’ll be the focus as Surrey rounds out their pre-season schedule on Sunday. “We need to continue to get better at defending. We’re a younger team so we have to rely on our smarts rather than our physical ability. We can’t overpower teams so we have to be more disciplined in our positioning. Puck management will be our strength so as this team matures collectively together it’ll be fun to watch. It’s been great to watch them grow as a group and as we go here the sky’s the limit with this team. They’re so smart and we’re hoping we can grow exponentially and bring some excitement for our fans in South Surrey.”
The Eagles will look to round out their pre-season with 3 straight wins as they get set to host the Langley Rivermen inside the South Surrey Arena. Puck drop is slated for 4:00pm, and attendance is free to the public! Make sure to have proof of vaccination and ID to gain entry to the game. If you can’t make the game inside the rink, the broadcast will go live 10-15 minutes before puck-drop on BCHL TV (Powered by HockeyTV), and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl.
