Chilliwack, B.C. – On a Friday night inside the Chilliwack Coliseum, the Surrey Eagles (15-14-0) were the home team due to a lack of ice inside the South Surrey Arena. While the Eagles may have been the official home team, the Eagles were unable to earn a result against the Chilliwack Chiefs as they dropped the game by a score of 4-2 in front of the Chilliwack faithful.
Brad Tobin ran the bench again as Cam Keith wasn’t available, and unfortunately couldn’t keep his winning streak alive. When asked about the initial thoughts on the game, Brad noted the team started pretty slow before they started to find their groove. “We started off a little slow. As the game progressed we started to get into a rhythm and played pretty solid. Two costly back checks in the 2nd period made it 3-1 unfortunately, but we gave ourselves a chance at the end and ultimately I’m happy with how we played tonight.”
It was 1-1 heading into the 2nd period after a strong opening frame by the Eagles, but the Chiefs scored two goals 1:17 apart on two very similar plays. Cameron Johnson and AJ Lacroix scored the 2 on 1 tap ins against Eagles starter Max Prazma, and Surrey couldn’t find a way back to level footing throughout the game. The Eagles outshot the Chiefs 31-23 in the game, but were stoned by Grant Riley multiple times as he made 29 saves for the win.
Surrey’s only goal scorer was Jake Bongo, who had both goals in the game. It was the first 2 goals of 2022 for Bongo who improved his team leading total up to 18. Bongo scored his second goal after taking a nasty hit from Anthony Allepot in the 2nd period, all while wearing a different jersey as he was forced to change into a new number after the hit. When asked about Bongo’s play, Brad was mostly impressed with his toughness and resiliency to get back into the fight quickly. “He was a warrior. He scored our first goal and then took an unfortunate hit in the second period. He took some time off and got back in there and scored his first shift back. He’s a warrior and a goal scorer and we’re happy he got back on the board and can hopefully keep it going.”
This weekend is going to get busier, as the Eagles played their first of a 4 games in 5 nights portion of their schedule. When asked about what the team needs to do moving through the weekend, Brad noted the next 3 games are going to be more important as the Eagles chase home ice advantage in the playoffs. “Obviously the points are more important after the loss tonight. For us, we’ll reset and look at video for Powell River during our off day tomorrow. We gotta make sure we’ve got all lines rolling and we’ll go from there.”
The Eagles will take Saturday off as they’ll travel to Powell River before they play the first of 2 against the Kings on Sunday. Puck drop from the Hap Parker Arena is scheduled for 4:00pm. You can catch all the action live on BCHL TV (Powered by HockeyTV) and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl.
