Coquitlam, B.C – The Surrey Eagles paid a visit to the B.C. Hockey League’s 2019-20 version of the lion’s den, namely the Poirier Sports and Leisure Centre in Coquitlam, and the result was, well, predictable.
Following their 6-1 victory over the Eagles, the Express extended their home-ice record to a perfect 14-0. The win improved Coquitlam’s league-best record to 23-5, and extended their lead atop the BCHL standings to three points over the second-overall Penticton Vees. For Surrey, it was the first of eight straight games on the road, and the result dropped their record to 9-15-1-3.
To compound matters for the Eagles, they played without their leading scorer, Holden Katzalay. Katzalay is 6th in league scoring, and his presence was sorely missed.
In addition, Eagles head coach Cam Keith was ejected midway through the third period after Surrey’s Brandon Santa Juana was railroaded into a fight with Coquitlam’s Christian MacDougall. Keith protested that no call was made on the play, which led to the fight, and might have made his point as MacDougall was given the extra instigator penalty. It was one of three fights in the third period, which also saw Surrey’s Cade Alami and Coquitlam’s Danny Pearson sent to the showers early with 10-minute misconducts past the halfway mark of the third period.
Surrey opened the scoring on the powerplay with a tally off a goal-mouth scramble by Cristophe Tellier 13 minutes in, but it was all Coquitlam after that. The Express tied the game before the first period ended, then took control of the contest with a three-goal second period. Massimo Rizzo, the Carolina Hurricane’s seventh-round pick in last June’s NHL draft, led the attack with his first BCHL hat trick.
“They wore us down,” said Keith afterwards. “They were really good in the offensive zone, protected pucks and grinded us. We just got fatigued as the game went along, and made some mental errors which cost us, and we couldn’t get any real momentum back.
“I thought in the third period we responded well, we continued to battle and our effort was there for the most part. Against the best team in the league you have to play the perfect game and we didn’t play perfect tonight.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Eagles as they head back across the Fraser River on Sunday afternoon to take on the Express, and that perfect home record.
