In what can only be described as a bru-ha-ha, the Surrey Eagles fell to the Langley Rivermen by a score of 5-3 in one of the craziest B.C Hockey League games of the season.
In what should’ve been a game the Eagles came out hard to try and propel them into a better position in the Mainland division, the boys fell flat on their faces. The Eagles trailed in the shot column 13-7, and 23-16 after the 1st and 2nd periods respectively. They were lucky to only be down by 2 goals after the first 40 minutes, but some great goaltending from Eagles starter Thomas Scarfone kept the game relatively close. The only goals through 40 were a backdoor shot from Langley captain Tanner Versluis in the first, and a well placed wrister off the stick of Jonathan Stein with just 31 seconds to go in the 2nd.
Then, chaos overtook the George Preston Arena in one of the craziest 20 minute sequences of the season. It all started when Langley extended their lead just a 1:34 into the final frame, when Brian Scoville scored his first goal of the season on another Eagles defensive breakdown, and the game was teetering on the edge of being a blowout.
The Eagles ‘Insurance Line’ broke through for the Eagles just 4 minutes later, when Cristophe Tellier crashed the net and banged home a loose puck to make it 3-1. The Eagles came within a goal a 13 minutes into the frame when Hudson Schandor scored his 8th goal of the season, and 4th of the weekend, on the powerplay to make it 3-2.
Then all hell broke loose. Just 25 seconds after Schandor made it a 1 goal game, the Rivermen appeared to have extended their lead on a shot from Stein. However, both officials waived no goal and there was mass confusion around the rink. The Rivermen were celebrating their supposed goal, but the Eagles kept playing. Schandor poked the puck over to Eagles defenseman Owen Nolan, and he took a shot towards the Langley goal which appeared empty. Braedon Fleming got back and stopped the puck, but Nolan was sucker punched by Langley forward Sean Bunting and a huge fight broke out at centre. After a lengthy delay, the goal was awarded to the Rivermen, and the Eagles received a 7 minute powerplay with just 6:35 to play in the final frame.
The Eagles were able to get one more goal on the powerplay, courtesy of Carter King, but in the end there just wasn’t enough left in the tank and the comeback was dashed when Langley’s leading scorer Brendan Budy put the puck into an empty net with just 38 seconds to go.
After the game, Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith was visually disappointed with his group’s lack of effort throughout the game, but also in shock as to what he just witnessed. “I mean, it was one of those weird scenarios where you didn’t really know what was going on, and I don’t think the [officials] knew what was going on either. But, at the same time, our kids just weren’t in it tonight. It was a poor effort on our side.”
“I’m pretty disappointed in our kids tonight; they didn’t want to play. They played a little bit during the powerplay, and we scored a couple goals. However, it was no indication of our effort level and our preparation to come in and play a divisional game.”
The lone bright spot in tonight’s loss was the play of Scarfone, and Cam noted, “Tommy played great. The score could’ve been a lot worse in the beginning if he didn’t make a couple of those big saves. You’ve got to tip your cap to him for battling all the way through, he just didn’t get much help tonight.
The boys continue their BCHL season on the road, as they’ll head up to Salmon Arm to take on the red hot Silverbacks on October 23rd. The game will start at 7:00pm from the Shaw Centre, and you can catch the broadcast live on Mixlr, and HockeyTV.
