Surrey, B.C. – After a successful road trip last weekend, the Surrey Eagles (12-9-0) returned home to celebrate Damon Pugerude on his 500 games (now 503) in Jr. A Hockey. After a slow start, the Eagles found their stride and soared to a 5-3 come from behind win over the Victoria Grizzlies (12-11-0) to win their 4th straight game in December.
The Eagles didn’t play their best out of the gate, maybe due to the powerful ceremony which took place pre-game which honoured Damon on his career thus far, but Max Prazma was terrific early to keep them in the game. Once the 3rd period rolled along, the Eagles found their stride and took control of the contest. Surrey scored 4 goals and limited Victoria to just 5 shots in the final 20 minutes to skate away with the victory to cap off the ceremonius night.
Jake Bongo led the way for the Eagles offensively tonight like he has all season, and scored both the opening goal and the game winner in the game. Buddy Johnson, Michael Abgrall, and Jacob Slipec rounded out the scoring for Surrey in the win while Prazma made 33 saves for his 8th win of the season. The Eagles won the special teams battle during the game, as they killed off all 3 Victoria power plays while going 1 for 2 on the man advantage.
The Eagles trailed by a goal after both the 1st and 2nd periods, but made the necessary adjustments in the 3rd to find their offensive touch. Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith admitted it was a slow start for his group, but was happy with the way they were able to adapt in game to come away with the victory. “I thought we started out slow but Max Prazma kept us in the game. We had a big 3rd period where we collectively simplified the game and came away with the win.”
Coming into the game tonight, the Eagles were 3-5 inside the South Surrey Arena and were in need of simplifying their game on the olympic sized ice surface. Cam talked about it in the pre-game interview, and when asked on the adjustments his team made, Cam was happy with the way the guys were able to find a way to win in the 3rd. “In the 3rd period we started to put pucks north, kept it along the wall, tried to get it behind the net, and looked to put pucks on net and battled for 2nd chance opportunities without cheating the game. It snowballed momentum in our favour and ultimately helped us win the game.”
The offensive story of the night for Surrey was again the play of their top line of Michael Abgrall, Jake Bongo, and Primo Self. The trio combined for 3 of the Eagles 5 goals, and 7 points on the night. When asked about the play from his top trio, Cam admitted the move to put Bongo on centre and Abgrall on the wing could be one of the reasons the line has worked so well. “Placing Bongo up the middle and switching Abgrall to the wing has created some chemistry for both those players, while Primo Self continued to find his game. Now that they’re all rolling they’re feeding off each others energy which has carried us through this winning streak.”
The Eagles will look to continue their momentum on Sunday afternoon, as they’ll host the Victoria Grizzlies for a 2nd straight game inside the South Surrey Arena in search of their 5th straight win. Puck drop is slated for 4:00pm, and tickets for the game are still available. If you can’t make it to the game, you can watch the Telus Surrey Eagles Broadcast live on BCHL TV (Powered by HockeyTV), and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl.
