SURREY — Friday night the Surrey Eagles put up another hard-nosed effort that kept the crowd at the South Surrey Arena largely entertained for 60 minutes of end-to-end action.
Again Surrey’s Christian Short made some remarkable, show-stopping saves. Again the Eagles got a first goal of the season from a player overdue to find the back of the net. And again, it all ended in defeat.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.
It’s been the story of so many games in the early going of this young season for the Eagles, as the team shows positive signs of growth from game to game. Young players making the leap to Junior A are playing strong and developing well. The effort is there, as to a man the team is consistently working hard from puck-drop to final buzzer. The chances are many. But the results have yet to arrive.
The Eagles are not making glaring errors, but slight hiccups here and there are costing them. Tonight it was a powerplay goal that opened the scoring for the visiting Nanaimo Clippers, as Nanaimo’s Sheldon Rempal beat Short on the back-hand 14:25 into the opening frame. Rempal tallied just 5 seconds into the man-advantage, taking the puck off the draw, skating it behind the net shortside, and taking a no-look back-hander as he skated it out the other end.
The hiccup? One of Surrey’s penalty-killers, slashed in the wrist off the faceoff, went fishing for his fallen glove off the draw. Five seconds later, Short was fishing the puck from out of his net. Five seconds of distraction and it cost them. Just five seconds.
The Clippers extended the lead 1:12 into the second period, as streaking defenseman Yanni Kaldis took a Brett Roulston feed out of the corner for a one-timer that beat Short blocker-side. It was a bang-bang passing play coming quickly on the heels of a major collision in the neutral zone.
Just over 14 minutes later however, Surrey’s Ben Vikich would reward the coaching staff for putting him in a prime position to succeed. Promoted to the top line prior to Friday’s action, Vikich had a number of tremendous scoring chances last weekend but couldn’t convert. That wasn’t the case on this night. Trevor MacLean started the play with a long blast from the far-side point, that Clippers goalie Guillaume Decelles was able to catch a piece of, but couldn’t hang on to. The Nanaimo goalie from Joliette, Quebec kicked a juicy rebound right out front, and Vikich was ready and waiting in the low slot to knock it home for his first of the year.
The large crowd on hand for the game went wild for the goal, and flow of the game seemed to swing back in Surrey’s favour for the rest of the second. A late roughing penalty against MacLean however, called immediately after Short made his most fantastic series of saves in the game, would put the Eagles back on their heels to start the third.
The Eagles came into the final frame down a man for the first 1:48, and had trouble regaining the momentum in the third from there — though perhaps their best chance of the period came while down a man. Not long after Jake Jackson put the Clippers up by two at 3:06, Nick Beck was sent to the box for high-sticking. With time ticking down, the Eagles would need a shortie to make things interesting, and they very nearly got one off a shot-handed 2-on-1 break between a pinching Brian Drapluk and Spencer Unger. Drapluk carried in and got Decelles moving side-to-side before feeding to Unger in the slot. Unger’s shot beat the keeper five-hole, but somehow stayed out, narrowly sliding past the post and out shortside.
Darius Davidson had a great shot from the middle on a late Surrey powerplay to make things interesting as well, but was denied by the glove of Decelles. The Nanaimo netminder made 30 stops in the contest and was named first star of the game.
For as good as Short has been — and he has been excellent — for the past two games against Nanaimo and Prince George, the Eagles have hit equally great goaltending at the other end. Six games into the year, they’re still looking for Win #1. With efforts like this, they’ll find it sooner than later.
