Victoria, BC – Facing a depleted Victoria Grizzlies lineup, the surging Surrey Eagles effectively took care of the business at hand on Sunday afternoon. The Eagles skated out of The Q Centre with a 6-3 B.C. Hockey League victory over the home team for their fourth win in the past five games—all on the road as they played their seventh of eight straight away from home.
A day after knocking off the Island Division leading Nanaimo Clippers on their home ice with a shootout victory, the Eagles totally dominated the first period facing the division’s last place team. They gave up a season period-low of just two shots on goal, while taking nine of their own and a 1-0 lead on a pretty three-way passing play on the powerplay finished off by Brandon Santa Juana. Surrey then stormed out of the gate in the second with goals by Gabe Schovanek and Christian Fitzgerald in the first four minutes, and never allowed the Grizzlies to narrow the deficit to less than two goals. Cade Alami, with the eventual game-winner, also on the powerplay, Wyatt Schlaht and captain Hudson Schandor rounded out the scoring.
Victoria was missing seven injured and one suspended player, and Surrey head coach Cam Keith was thrilled his young team took full advantage. “Everyone was contributing. We had a good first period, and then aside from a couple of lapses here and there the boys played really well. Our game plan was to get pucks in behind their D. They had a couple of affiliated players and we were just trying to wear them out. The kids stuck to the game plan and played really good hockey.”
“Sometimes you play full lineups and sometimes you don’t, and the times you get that you have to make sure you get the points because you never know … we were fortunate that way today.”
Further making the coach’s day was the fact that while captain Hudson Schandor led the attack with a goal and two assists, the Eagle’s top line and/or powerplay wasn’t primarily responsible for the team’s biggest offensive outburst in the past month.
Secondary scoring has been the team’s Achilles’ heel since Game One of the season three months ago. However, Fitzgerald’s goal broke a personal 14-game pointless streak, Schlaht’s goal was his first in six games, Alami’s bullet one-timer from the left circle was his first goal in 19 games, and Schovanek’s fifth goal of the season was his third in the past six games. Notably, all four are rookies, and their contributions came the game after Adamo Santia broke his own 26-game goalless skid on Saturday night in Nanaimo.
But when asked if he could put his finger one thing that has propelled the team into earning eight points in the past five games as the visiting team, Keith was unequivocal. “Goaltending, especially on the road, because you are going to face those times when there’s a storm and if you can’t weather it you aren’t going to win many hockey games. Tommy Scarfone deserves a lot of credit for our current situation.” The victory pushed Scarfone’s record above .500 for the first time this season in, yes, his rookie BCHL season, to 10-9-2-2, to go along with a goals-against average of 2.84 and a save percentage of .916. Scarfone’s play has improved right as the Eagles have as well, as the Quebec native is 7-1-2-2 in his past 12 starts.
The 2019-20 Eagles are an essentially completely rebuilt team from last season’s squad, which was the only one of the 17 BCHL teams to not participate in the playoffs. Santa Juana is now the only returning Eagle, perhaps the most amazing statistic of them all in this turn-around season, which, if anything, is ahead of schedule. “We did talk about it,” Keith said of the coaching staff’s approach to the season. “After Christmas time is when the kids are going to start to play more like veterans than rookies. There are tough battles to go through, and the kids are going to have to evolve with the league and step into those roles that normally older guys would play.”
After a painful September and October, which landed the Eagles solidly in the Mainland Division basement, things turned around in November when they earned points in nine of 12 games. Two wins in three games this month have the Eagles four points ahead of the defending Fred Page Cup champion Prince George Spruce Kings and one point behind the third-place Langley Rivermen.
Putting a bit of a damper on the win was that forward Sean Ramsay suffered a knee injury in the first period, which required him visiting a hospital for examination. As well, veteran defenseman Kieran O’Hearn, whom the Eagles acquired in the late October trade which sent former captain Cody Schiavon to the Trail Smoke Eaters, was assessed a major penalty for a blow to the head, which will likely result in a suspension.
The Eagles conclude their road odyssey in Langley on Saturday night before finally returning home to take on Prince George on Dec. 20 in the team’s Teddy Bear Toss night.
