Surrey, B.C. – On the final Sunday afternoon game of the 2021 portion of the Surrey Eagles (13-12-0) BCHL regular season schedule, they hoped to snap a losing skid and head to their holiday break on a happy note. That didn’t happen, as they gave up 5 goals in the 1st period to the Powell River Kings (9-14-2) and weren’t able to soar back in a 6-4 loss which saw the Eagles drop their 3rd straight game.
The Eagles left their starting goaltender out to dry in the 1st period with multiple turnovers which ended up in the back of their net. Eli Pulver was the victimized goaltender, as he gave up 5 goals on 15 shots against in his only period of work before he was relieved of duties by Max Prazma.
From the 2nd period on, the Eagles were a different team. They skated hard, they generated a number of chances, but they couldn’t climb out of the hole they dug themselves in despite their valiant effort. They outshot the Kings 47-30 in the game, but their power-play continued to fail them when they needed it most despite going 1 for 5 on the night.
Jacob Slipec, Michael Abgrall, Cole Galata, and Primo Self had the goals for Surrey in the defeat, which saw their December record finish at 5-3 after starting the month on a 5 game win streak. All in all, the 2021 portion of the schedule was very up and down for this young Eagles team, but the ceiling is still sky high and there’s a lot of optimism around the group moving forward.
For Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith, the positive out of this game was the team didn’t back down after an abysmal first period and played their hearts out to try and find the equalizer in the final 40 minutes. “We dug ourselves a hole but you gotta give the kids credit for trying to battle back and make it a game which they did. We weren’t able to capitalize on the 5 on 3 which I believe was the difference maker but there were a lot of positives tonight.”
It’s been a season focused on the process so far, as the expectations on the Eagles team remain high but won’t be achieved unless the foundation for this group is rock solid moving forward. For the Eagles Head Coach, he understands wins will be tougher to snatch up and knows his team will need to level up. “We gotta realize at this time of the year that wins become harder and harder to get, so we have to raise the level of ourselves and not be complacent with where we’re at. Regardless of results we have to keep pushing forward to get better. It’ll be nice to get some healthy bodies after the Christmas break and hopefully we can make a push in 2022.”
The Eagles now head off for their holiday break, and while it may seem like a good time on the outside looking in it doesn’t really matter in the eyes of Cam Keith. The break alone should be a positive and should help this Eagles team refresh regardless if they were 9-0 or 0-9. “I don’t think losing, winning really matters when going into a break because everything gets forgotten, especially recent results. We’ll look at where we’re at in the standings, and we understand we need to be better on our home ice which is important for this team with our olympic sized ice. We’ve shown we can compete with the better teams in our division. So right now I don’t think there’s much negativity around the group, but we do understand we need to turn things around after 3 losses and be better. We’ll look at everything when we get back, but it’s always a good time for a break regardless of a winning or losing streak.”
The Eagles organization would like to thank all of their volunteers, sponsors, friends, family and fans for a great start to our 2021-22 regular season. We missed having you around throughout the beginning of the year, and we’re glad to be able to see everyone moving forward. The Eagles next game is on January 2nd, and for more information stay tuned to our social media channels.
