Down To The Wire
Chilliwack, B.C. – A week after the Surrey Eagles picked up their 1st win of the exhibition schedule in overtime, the Eagles fought hard and picked up their 2nd win in a row against the Chilliwack Chiefs inside the Chilliwack Coliseum. While this game also went to overtime, it took a shootout to decide the winner, and the Eagles prevailed by a score of 4-3.
While there was 6 goals scored in regulation split between the 2 teams, Cam Keith made it clear who his 1st star was this evening. “Tommy Scarfone; he seems to have a knack for the dramatic. He made some big saves when we needed it. I thought we played well for the most part, but we need to be a little more consistent. We took too many chances, gave up too many odd man rushes, but the kids competed hard.”
Scarfone made all 5 saves in the shootout, to go along with 32 saves through 65 minutes. Tonight was a little different however, as the Eagles struck first off a beautiful goal from Kenny Riddett to make it 1-0 early in the 1st period. Jimmy Darby & Holden Cardinal scored as well for the Eagles, while Wyatt Schlaht, Brody Gagno, and Frankie Carogioeillo scored for Chilliwack. Gabe Schovanek won it for the Eagles in the 5th round of the shootout after a frantic overtime period. Cam made note of his goal-scorers as well when talking about the keys to the victory. “Kenny Riddett had a great game, it was really good to see Cardinal display his speed. There were some really good things tonight, and some things to build off of.”
For Cam’s young squad, these first 4 games have been “…A perfect atmosphere to be honest with you. For us to start our season against a great team built by Brian [Maloney], in one of the toughest rinks to play in period, it’s completely different from where we practice on. We need to learn to play on these regular sized ice surfaces against teams that play with pace and physicality. This prepares these kids to play at the next level, and it makes us better. We’re slowly getting back to our game, even though we’re a ways away, but this is how you find it.”
It was a back and forth showdown, with both teams establishing their game throughout the contest. One thing which lacked for Surrey was their powerplay. While they kept Chilliwack off the board with the man advantage, Surrey went 1 for 8 while up a skater and Cam talked about how to improve their special teams moving forward. “We’re having some difficulties breaking pucks in. There’s not enough passing, not enough puck movement. That’ll get ironed out throughout the year; we have so much skill up front I don’t see it being a long term issue. We probably haven’t practiced it enough but it’s something we’ll work on. You have to have a good powerplay to win games.”
The Eagles will look for their 3rd win in a row tomorrow night, as they’ll play the Chiefs for the 5th straight game inside the Chilliwack Coliseum. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm, and the broadcast will go live on HockeyTV and Mixlr at 6:50pm.
