Surrey Eagles vs Coquitlam Express Post Game Recap

The Surrey Eagles lost highly touted 6-foot-7 defenseman Cade Alami to a fighting major late in the first period, and then lost the script, surrendering 10 goals over the final 40 minutes as the visiting Coquitlam Express skated to a 10-4 B.C. Hockey League pre-season victory on Tuesday night.

The Eagles hurt themselves by taking nine minor penalties in the second period alone. The Express had 22 shots in the period and scored three power-play goals—including a pair while skating with a two-man advantage—in taking a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes. They broke the game wide open with three goals in 68 seconds early in the third period and extended their lead to 10-2 before Surrey scored twice in the game’s final five minutes.

Surrey coach Cam Keith pulled starting goaltender Cal Schell after the thee-goal onslaught, but wasn’t faulting him, in fact naming his game as the only positive he could find in the team’s second straight loss. “I thought Cal early was good, he was quick. I think his conditioning is one thing that needs to improve. You could tell mentally he wore down as the game went on, but he didn’t get a lot of help today.

“Our D struggled today. There are some kids that need to amp it up if they want to play minutes for us this year. We have a core group that is going to be good but there’s a few kids that are battling for those final spots and right now no one’s really stepped up and taken charge of that that so it was a disappointing night that way.”

Defenseman Owen Nolan didn’t dress as he was handed a two-game suspension for a hit from behind in the Eagles 4-3 loss to Chilliwack on Saturday. Fellow blue-liner Cody Schiavon didn’t play the second half of the game due to injury precaution.

Losing Alami for the final two periods hurt “a lot” said Keith. “I’ll give the other kid [Christian McDougall] a lot of credit for stepping in there. I think it was good for Cade to show the guys that it’s something he’s willing to do if it should happen. Unfortunately, it didn’t really spark us in the right direction.”

Connor Gregga and Ryan Tattle scored a pair apiece to lead the Coquitlam attack. The Express have scored 18 goals in their first two pre-season games, after beating the Wenatchee Wild 8-5 previously. Gabe Schovanek and Hudson Schandor led the Surrey offense with a goal and an assist apiece. Holden Katzalay and Adamo Santia  had the other Surrey goals.

“We’ll use tonight as a learning tool,” said Keith. “We obviously have a lot of fresh faces, and systems haven’t been established yet. We’re still figuring who’s going to be playing where, kind of jockeying for position, and you could see it tonight. They are a more veteran group than us and were more dialed in positionally whereas we ran around. We tried to make plays that weren’t there as a lot of the kids were trying to prove themselves.”

“We need to get back to work tomorrow and get ready for a really good Wenatchee team [Friday night in Surrey], and Chilliwack [on the road on Sunday] as well, because we need to figure it out before going to Prince George,” for a season-opening two game series on Sept. 6 and 7.