Surrey, BC – The Surrey Eagles (17-16-0) returned home after a lengthly road trip on Friday night and looked for a bounce back win after dropping the final game last week. Unfortunately, Surrey couldn’t muster any offense against Ajeet Gundarah and the Langley Rivermen (20-7-3) and lost the game 4-1.
Grayden Slipec opened the scoring in the game for Surrey with just under 5 minutes remaining in the 1st period, but the Eagles weren’t able to muster any additional offense from that point on. Gundarah was a wall in the net for Langley, and earned 1st star honours after he made 33 out of a possible 34 saves.
Surrey led after 20 minutes, but Langley would score 4 unanswered goals in the next 40 minutes to spoil the Eagles return to the South Surrey Arena. Ryan Upson, Chase Sandhu, Keeton Oakley and Andrej Kovacevic had the goals for Langley in the win, which saw Surrey’s record against the Coastal Conference leaders drop to 1-4 on the season, with all 4 losses being games in which the Eagles scored just 1 goal.
Eagles Head Coach’s initial thoughts on the game were positive in a close contest which could’ve went either way despite the scoreline. “It was a tough game both ways. One of those games where a bounce one way or the other could’ve gave the other team an advantage. We didn’t capitalize on our chances and they did.”
Surrey has the talent, but hasn’t been able to find success against a few of the top teams in the BCHL. Tonight was another game which they played well, but there are a few things they need to improve upon to unlock their potential as a group in the eyes of their coach. “We need to be a little more solid in our decision making. We get a little excited with the feel of the game, and we develop an all or nothing type of attitude. We need to have a less is more mindset and be more patient with the game instead of trying to force things.”
Tonight’s loss wasn’t due to effort, but rather the play of Langley’s goaltending which is among the best in the league. Cam noted his team will need to find ways to get to the dirty areas if they want to find success against the Rivermen, and other top teams around the league. “Langley did a really good job of keeping us to the outside. We have to find ways to get around the net and create redirect and get traffic in front of those guys. We need more second and third chance opportunities instead of shots from the outside.”
Surrey gets another crack at Langley right away tomorrow afternoon against the Rivermen. The game is scheduled for 1:00pm inside the Bill Copeland Arena. Tickets are available, and season ticket members will be honoured at the game. If you can’t make it to the game, you can catch all the action on BCHL TV (Powered by HockeyTV), and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl.
