Nanaimo, BC – For the first time since March of 2020, the Surrey Eagles and the Nanaimo Clippers played a playoff game and began their quest for the Fred Page Cup. In a cruel sequence of events, a late goal with 2:30 remaining in the third period sunk the Eagles as the Clippers pulled away with the 3-2 victory.
After a scoreless first period, Sean Donaldson got the Clippers on the board just 21 seconds into the second period. The Eagles didn’t wait long to respond as just two minutes later Primo Self sniped a wrist shot past the glove of Cooper Black to tie the game. Ben Fontaine gave the Eagles the lead at the 9:07 mark of the second period with a snipe over the stick side shoulder of Black and things were looking up for this young Eagles team.
However in the third period the Eagles gave the Clippers two power plays, and both times it came back to cost them. The first penalty was a Tate Taylor holding minor, and the Clippers scored 12 seconds into their powerplay when Brody Waters deflected home an Andrew Noel wrist shot. The 2nd penalty was an Oliver Gabrielson tripping minor late in the third. The Eagles killed off the penalty, but in the same sequence of play when Gabrielson rejoined his teammates he watched as Austin Spiridakis took a shot from behind the goal line which deflected off of Taylor’s skate past Eagles starter Max Prazma. Prazma was solid but took the loss after giving up 3 goals on 22 shots. Cooper Black made 22 saves in the Nanaimo victory.
Yet despite the loss, the Eagles looked strong for a majority of the game. They played a simple, smart game and generated a number of quality scoring chances. When asked about his team’s performance, Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith was mostly positive about how his team played. “I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win on the road. We were up 1 goal heading into the 3rd period, and in a playoff game that’s a great spot to be in. It was just an unfortunate way the game played out in the end.”
In many players first career BCHL playoff game, the Eagles were forced to handle Nanaimo’s physicality all night and they weren’t given any favours from the officials. Surrey wasn’t given a powerplay in the game, but despite the lack of calls Cam thought his team handled the adversity well. “I thought our guys stuck with it and didn’t shy away even when Nanaimo upped the physicality. It’s a huge positive sign for this group for this playoff run. We need to use our brains and move pucks and not take as many hits but you’re going to take some hits at times. For us to prove to ourselves we can stand in there and take some punishment and push through is a really positive sign.”
The Eagles will look to bounce back tomorrow evening, and despite the strong play from this team they’ll look to split the first two games instead of going for the 2-0 on the road. When asked about what he’d like to see from his team in game 2, Cam highlighted the Eagles need to be a little more composed moving forward. “We have more to give, and we need to be more composed with the puck. We were a little nervous at times and that comes with the first playoff game for a young group.”
Game 2 is tomorrow night inside the Frank Crane Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm, and you can catch all the action on BCHLTV (Powered by HockeyTV) and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl.
