A disastrous opening seven-and-a-half minutes, and continued woes on the special teams doomed the Surrey Eagles to a third straight B.C. Hockey League loss on Wednesday night as the hometown Cowichan Valley Capitals skated to a 5-2 triumph at the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan.
The Eagles, who gave up five unanswered goals in the third period on Tuesday night to fall 6-3 to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in the first of their back-to-backs on this Vancouver Island road swing, came out on their heels and the Capitals took full advantage. It was 3-0 by the 7:37 mark, helped in no small part by a double minor penalty assessed to Surrey’s Adamo Santia for high-sticking. It took the Capitals all of nine seconds to strike on the first powerplay, to make it 2-0, and when Josh Kagan then scored his first of two goals on the night on the ensuing powerplay it appeared the rout was on.
However, that was not to be. Surrey regained its composure, a good sign even in a losing cause for one of the youngest teams in the 17-team BCHL this season. Surrey dressed one 20-year-old (Akash Bains), Cowichan Valley five; Surrey dressed two 16-year-old associated players, Cowichan Valley none. Despite that, the Eagles displayed the necessary grit to get back into the game. Goals in the final four minutes of the period by Carter King and Holden Katzalay, each with their second of the season, made the score 3-2, despite the Eagles being outshot 16-8 in the opening 20 minutes.
Surrey was the better of the two teams in the second period and the early part of the third, in fact at one point taking the lead in shots on net. But, when Eagles defenseman Owen Nolan had his stick shatter on a shot from the point, Cowichan was gifted a two-on-none which Kagan finished off in style to extend their lead to 4-2, before adding the dagger just past the midway mark of the period.
Despite the third straight loss, Eagles head coach Cam Keith found a couple of silver linings. “They’ve got an older group and took advantage of us coming out hesitant. It took us half a period to get into the game which cost us,” said Keith. “But on the positive side we willed ourselves back into it. I think a few of our younger guys found their games tonight.
“We still need to improve in a few spots, for sure. With a young team like ours we will continue to look for players who can come in and help us, but we have a very good base. Offensively, in general we’re creating all the time. We need to find ways to get to the net to get those greasy goals around the crease.
“From a road trip which we didn’t get any points off of, we’re still taking a lot of positives from it.”
Surrey came into game near the very bottom of the league on both the powerplay and the penalty kill and neither were effective in this contest. Surrey went 1-6 on the powerplay, and allowed the Capitals three powerplay goals on only five attempts. Somewhat tellingly, the game’s third star was Capitals goalie Zach Borgiel, who kept a clean slate over the final 40 minutes and with the win improved to 4-0 on the young season.
Age, not effort, is hurting them on the PK, said Keith. “We’ve got so many younger kids who have not been properly instructed on puck movement. We’re thinking too much instead of reacting because we’re unsure because of our experience, which on the positive side is coachable.”
Surrey returns to action with a home game on Sunday afternoon with the first of three straight games against the division rival Langley Rivermen, who have started off this season with three straight losses, and will be playing their third game in as many days on Sunday.
“We need to start taking care of home ice,” said Keith. “We’re .500 on the road now, which was kind of our goal for the year but we have to take advantage of home ice and now is the time.”
