Chilliwack, BC – Welcome back Tommy Scarfone.
The Surrey Eagles’ number one goalie, sidelined all of January with an injury, pitched a 43-save shutout in his return to action on Saturday night as the Eagles defeated the Chilliwack Chiefs 3-0 in B.C. Hockey League action at the Chilliwack Coliseum for a sweep of the Mainland Division teams’ home-and-home weekend series.
Scarfone made 19 saves in his first period back on the ice, Eagles captain Hudson Schandor potted his 20th goal of the season midway through the second period for the eventual game-winner, and Scarfone and his teammates played a shut-down style of game in the third as the third-place Eagles won their fourth straight game against the second-place Chiefs this season. Surrey forward Carter King sealed the deal with not one but two empty-net goals in the final 90 seconds.
Scarfone’s first career BCHL shutout on Saturday night came on the heels of his new goaltending partner Reece Klassen’s first-star performance in Surrey’s 3-2 shootout win over the Chiefs on Friday night in the opener of the home-and-home. Klassen, a 20-year-old WHL veteran who was acquired at the BCHL deadline with Scarfone on the IR, had played the past nine straight games for the Eagles. The team went 6-2-1 with him starring in net, and after Saturday night’s win pulled within seven points of the Chiefs as the regular season hits the homestretch.
“Obviously it’s always nice to have goaltending that can steal you a game,” acknowledged Eagles head coach Cam Keith post game. “Chilliwack came out hard, played like they usually do at home. They had a ton of offensive chances but Tommy stood tall early, made some really good saves, and kept them at bay. We re-focused after the first period, played our hockey, got the goal we needed and then we’re able to hold onto the lead.”
With Scarfone picking right back up where he left off before being sidelined over the holiday season break, coupled with the acquisition of Klassen, Surrey can now legitimately lay claim to having one of the best goaltending duos in the league. For the youngest team in the league, it’s a comforting feeling, if not always a comfortable one.
No team wants to give up 19 shots in a period, but when it’s 19 shots and no goals, well, as Keith noted “The most important view is the confidence that kind of goaltending gives a team. You could even feel it in the first period on the bench when Chilliwack was kind of all over us. There wasn’t a ton of panic even though we could tell we were starting out slow. There’s going to be tough games out there where you have to withstand another team’s push. That’s hockey.”
“We played really good hockey there for about a month, and then we got a bit hot and cold. But the times we’ve been cold our goaltending has stepped up. And we’re able to score when we get our chances. Between the two, that’s what a good team does.”
While the Eagles’ run of late may yet prove to be a case of too little too late when it comes to overtaking the Chiefs for second place in the division, the weekend sweep and fourth straight win over their likely first-round playoff foe bodes well for a young Surrey team as it looks ahead to a return to post-season action after watching from behind the plexiglas last season. Surrey has yet to clinch third in the division but Saturday’s win did give the team its 51st point in its 50th game of the season, with eight yet to play in the regular season. It also extended their lead over the fourth-place Langley Rivermen to seven points, with Langley now holding two games in hand.
