Flightless In Chilliwack
Chilliwack, B.C. – The Surrey Eagles were looking to bounce back after a rough start to their exhibition schedule on Sunday night, but a lack of discipline cost them again as the Chilliwack Chiefs were able to take both games of the weekend set with a 5-2 victory over the Eagles in the Chilliwack Coliseum.
The game started eerily similar to their first game of the exhibition schedule, with the Eagles surrendering an early goal on the powerplay to Chilliwack forward Kienan Draper. However, it wasn’t till the end of the period when things went awry. A double minor for kneeing against Alec Saretzky with just under 4 minutes to play in the opening period was followed with a slashing minor to Cole Galata, and a hit to the head minor and 10 minute misconduct to Jimmy Darby. Draper scored his 2nd powerplay goal of the game on the extended 5 on 3, and the Eagles were up against it.
Former Eagle Wyatt Schlaht scored his 1st of the pre-season to give the Chiefs a 3-0 lead early into the 2nd period, but the Eagles fought back. Galata scored his 1st of the pre-season after receiving a beautiful feed from Tio D’Addario, and the Eagles had life heading into the 3rd period.
The Eagles momentum carried over and they were able to cut the lead to 1 early in the final frame. Carter King scored his 2nd of the pre-season after another beautiful play from Gabe Schovanek and Brandon Santa Juana, and Surrey looked to be swinging the momentum of the game. Unfortunately, Ethan Bowen scored before Draper scored his 3rd of the game on the powerplay to seal the Chiefs victory.
While the score was similar to that of the 6-2 loss on Friday night, the effort had improved and the team played much better in the 2nd and 3rd periods. While the Eagles were out-shot 13-4 in the opening stanza, in large part due to the barrage of penalties, they kept pace in the final frames. The shots in the 2nd were 9-8 for Chilliwack, and in the 3rd the Eagles led the Chiefs 11-9 in the shot column.
The Eagles know they’ve got to improve their systems, but for their 2nd game in 6+ months with no intra-squad games in between, the rapid improvement was a sight for sore eyes for Eagles fans. The big key for this Eagles team will be the need to improve their discipline, as the Chiefs scored 6 powerplay goals over the weekend in 14 opportunities. While the special teams will improve with more reps, the players will need to make sure they’re not giving teams 7 power-plays a game on average during the season.
The team will practice the next week before heading back to Chilliwack for another date with the Chiefs on October 9th. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm inside the Chilliwack Coliseum, and you can catch all the action live on HockeyTV and Mixlr.
