Last Sunday in their 5-3 win over the Langley Rivermen, the Surrey Eagles scored five goals in the second period. Friday night, in their 3-0 loss to the Langley Rivermen, the Surrey Eagles lost five skaters—including their top four defensemen—to refereeing decisions before the final buzzer blew in the second straight B.C. Hockey League game between the division rivals at South Surrey Arena.
“No, I’ve never seen a game like that,” a surprisingly subdued Eagles head coach Cam Keith said post-game. “The game was a circus, well, it became a circus because of the way it transpired. There no flow to it, there were constant stops, constant evaluations. It’s disappointing, because for the most part I thought it was just a good, hard-played hockey game.”
Keith had been asking his players for better starts and initially, the Eagles responded and carried the play from the opening whistle. But after the Rivermen scored the opening goal against the run of the play, on a deflection of a harmless looking wrist shot from the point, Langley goalie Braeden Fleming was able to make it stand up as the game-winner. Fleming stopped all 29 shots Surrey fired his way, including a penalty shot by Christophe Tellier with just a little over three minutes to play in what was then a 2-0 game.
His counterpart in the Surrey goal, Thomas Scarfone, had a strong game as well, and finished with 29 saves on 31 shots.
“We came out and played well until they scored, then we kind of sat back on our heels. We quit skating, got into penalty trouble, and we just couldn’t get into a rhythm.” said Keith. “Then we started losing defensemen.”
The first two to exit were Brett Bliss, who was given a two-minute minor/game misconduct for checking from behind at 3:49 of the second period, on a play Keith could legitimately argue was “a boarding penalty, at best.” In the ensuing scrum following the hit, Langley’s biggest player Riley Wallack (6-foot-six, 215 pounds) challenged Surrey’s biggest player, Cade Alami (six-foot-seven, 190 pounds) to a heavyweight tilt, resulting in both players being ejected with fighting majors/game misconducts.
The next D-domino to fall for the Eagles was captain Cody Schiavon, this time at 7:49 of the third period for what Keith called “a hockey hit” behind the Surrey goal. It resulted in a second major melee and Schiavon getting dinged with a boarding minor, a roughing minor and a 10-minute misconduct. Simultaneously, the Eagles lost forward Adamo Santia to a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.
Finally, but definitely not the least, D-man Owen Nolan was given a match penalty for verbal abuse of an official after he was given a questionable interference penalty with 90 seconds to play, and is likely facing further disciplinary action from the league, i.e, a suspension.
“I thought we played well, other than the first period,” said Keith. “We didn’t get any puck luck tonight. But overall, I am proud of our guys. We didn’t back down. I think it was a good game for us to grow as a group. We were a little bit taken aback at first when Langley was being really physical, and then we kept backing off a little bit. But then we finally got to the point where it like, OK that’s enough. We bit back and then we built some confidence off of that aggression and compete.
“Guys have to understand that it’s not midget hockey and you can’t just come out and kind of go through the motions and wait for your chances and score goals. You have to go out there and compete and battle and get pucks back. Some of our younger guys need to be more ready right off the hop and initiate that, not just our older guys. But that comes with having a younger team,” said the coach of the league’s youngest and most rookie-laden squad.
The two teams renew hostilities for the third straight game Saturday night in Langley. Surrey then returns to home ice for a Sunday afternoon game against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
