The Surrey Eagles started their season against the defending Doyle Cup and Fred Page Cup Champions, the Prince George Spruce Kings on Friday night. The Eagles knew they were going to be put to the test right from game 1, and they passed with flying colours. The boys played hard, and came out of Friday’s game with their first win of the season as they beat the Spruce Kings by the score of 4-2 despite 2 power play goals by Finlay Williams.
It was a banner night for the Spruce Kings as they celebrated their championship season a year ago, but their fans went home empty handed. The Eagles fell behind early, but answered with 3 straight goals and never looked back en route to the victory. The Eagles used 4 different goal scorers, and saw contributions from 8 players in what was a balanced attack in a game which saw the boys without Sean Ramsay, Gabe Schovanek, Akash Bains, Juliano Santalucia, and Kenny Riddett.
The Spruce Kings took the lead with 8:45 remaining in the 1st period, but the Eagles received a gift courtesy of Spruce Kings starter Jett Alexander with 2:58 to go. Wyatt Schlaht came down the wing on a 2 on 1 opportunity with Adamo Santia, and fed him the puck right as they crossed the blueline. Santia took a look, and put a wrister on net which bounced off Alexander’s stick and into the net to tie the game at 1. Not the highlight reel goal Eagles head coach Cam Keith talked about in his pre-game interview with SurreyEagles.ca, but the Eagles took it and went to the 1st period intermission tied at 1.
After the late equalizer, the Eagles pushed the pace of play in the 2nd period and scored 2 goals to take control of the game. Just over 6 minutes into the 2nd period, and with just 1 second left on their first power play of the game, Carter King tipped home a point shot from Brett Bliss to give the Eagles the lead. Hudson Schandor added his 1st goal of the season 6 minutes later when he ripped home a wrister past the glove of Alexander, and the Eagles never relinquished their lead.
The Spruce Kings made a game of it as the 3rd period waned to a close. Eagles starting goaltender Thomas Scarfone however was excellent in the 3rd period, and made 31 saves on 33 shots for his first win of the season. He also saved the game late, with an absolutely magnificent stop in the final minutes of the 3rd period to preserve a 1 goal lead after Williams 2nd power play goal of the game had made it 3-2 just 5 minutes earlier.
It took a lot of guts, but the Eagles were able to get it done. Their next game is Saturday night, as they’ll wrap up their road trip to Prince George with the 2nd half of a back to back. Puck drop will be at 7:00 pm, and you can catch the broadcast on Mixlr and HockeyTV.
