The Surrey Eagles went full throttle on Sunday afternoon; exploding on the offense, making stellar stops on the defense, eventually soaring past the Trail Smoke Eaters and on to a 9-5 victory.
Eagles’ goaltender Daniel Davidson earned his fifth win of the season stopping 36 of 41 attempts, while Trail’s Linden Marshall was pulled after allowing five goals on 12 shots. Bailey MacBurnie would take his place halting 16 of 20 shots.
The Eagles started this game in a way they’ve rarely seen all season long! The chemistry clicked for the home team early in the opening period of play, scoring three goals in a span of four minutes. Forward Tyler Andrews got things going 98 seconds into the game to put Surrey ahead and was followed by Kurt Black and Brett Stewart within the next four minutes. Donovan Ott would recorded his first of two goals of the night shortly after Trail’s Kienan Scott opened the scoring for the visiting squad; the score was 4-1 after 20 minutes.
Surrey doubled their first period goals courtesy of Jaxon Joseph, Matt Hermary, Nick Azar, and Matt Brown, but Trail decided to score some goals of their own near the end of second frame. Bennett Morrison and Kienan Scott both scored on the power-play after the Eagles took a few unfortunate penalties, while Nolan Redler got around Daniel Davidson at the 40-minute mark. The refs would converse, the goal would stand, and the Eagles held an 8-4 lead going into the third.
A rather slow third period prevented both teams from powering through, but each would pick up one more goal before Surrey claimed their sixth win of the season. Ott scored his second of the night, while Max Newton netted his sixth of the year for the Smoke Eaters.
Surrey’s record improves to 6-31-0-2, while Trail drops to 18-22-1-0
The Eagles swept the three-star honours with Nick Azar’s four-point night, Donovan Ott’s two-goal performance, and Brett Stewart’s aggressive play at the back end.
Jeffery Stewart proved why he was selected to the 2016 CJHL Prospects Game by dominating in the face-off circle, earning him the Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game.
Surrey will play host to the Powell River Kings on Friday January 15th for the BCHL Five Hole for Food Challenge before wrapping up their four-game homestand against the Victoria Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon.
