Surrey Eagles vs Victoria Grizzlies Post Game Recap

 

Surrey, BC – A candidate for the B.C. Hockey League’s goal of the year by the league’s leading rookie scorer propelled the visiting Victoria Grizzlies to a 4-3 victory over the Surrey Eagles on Sunday afternoon at the South Surrey Arena.

Cody Monds, who also leads the Grizzlies in points this year, collected a loose puck with a head full of steam at the Surrey blueline. Monds toe-dragged the puck around an Eagles forward, then split the two defensemen with another burst of speed before making a nifty forehand-backhand deke to deposit the puck past a sprawled Cal Schell. It was Monds’ second unassisted goal and fourth point of the game.

The Eagles did come close to forcing extra time after pulling Schell for the extra attacker. However, Grizzlies goaltender Liam Souliere made the final two of his 20 third-period saves in the final 2 seconds to help the Island Division’s last-place team salvage some pride. Victoria gave up eight goals on both Friday and Saturday in losses to Wenatchee and Penticton.

For Surrey, the loss was a tough one to stomach. Coming back from a 12-day holiday break, the Eagles had played perhaps their best game of the season on Friday night in an impressive 3-1 victory over the Chilliwack Chiefs. However, Sunday’s loss came less than 24 hours after a disastrous third period on Saturday night when Surrey surrendered five third-period goals to the hometown Langley Rivermen in a 7-2 loss in what was a showdown for third place in the Mainland Division.

Cristophe Tellier, with two goals, and Carter King, with a powerplay goal to tie the game 3-3, scored for Surrey. Tellier could easily have matched Monds’ four-point game as he set up a number of linemates with wide-open chances in the slot only to see them shoot wide of the mark. “That’s normal for our boys. We can’t seem to get past the three-goal mark, that seems to be one of our issues,” said Eagles head coach Cam Keith of his team which sits 14th in the 17-team BCHL in goals scored.

“Saturday night was disappointing for our group and tonight was just OK, but we need to be better,” said Keith. “We took time off tonight. In the third period, for about 10 minutes there, they were pinning us down. It could be the three games in three days after the Christmas break with the 12-day hiatus—but no excuses. Right now, it’s a little bit of a tough pill for us to swallow because this was a huge game for us to stay tight with Langley,” said Eagles head Cam Keith, who was disappointed with his D men “poking and reaching” instead of taking the body on Monds’ game-winning beauty. Monds’ first goal also came at the expense of the defense as he intercepted an attempted D-to-D cross-ice pass in the Surrey zone to skate in alone and beat Schell.

“Maybe we were too high after beating Chilliwack and thought the rest of the weekend would be easy, but there are no easy games now,” said the coach, who then noted things only get tougher next weekend when the Eagles head north to take on the Prince George Spruce Kings in another showdown series. The defending Fred Page Cup champions have struggled this season, but enter the back-to-back contests just three points behind the Eagles.

“It’s the hardest rink to win in the BCHL,” said Keith of the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. “As far as atmosphere, and just being different. There’s the 10-hour bus rides, and cold weather. Then the ice surface is small so there’s nowhere to skate, and everything happens quick.

“But,” he continued, “This is what we want these kids to go through, the adversity of playing hard games in hard rinks that means something, so we will see the mettle and character of these kids.”

He most certainly will as the two games in Prince George kick off the latest lengthy road trip of the season for the Eagles, who upon returning home then head back out on the road to take on  the runaway league-leading Coquitlam Express in a mid-week game before heading to the Interior for weekend games against West Kelowna and Wenatchee. Surrey then plays three of its final four games in January at The Nest.