Victoria, B.C. – The Surrey Eagles (9-9-0) looked to begin the month of December with a bang on the road in Victoria for their first of 3 straight games on Vancouver Island this weekend. On Friday night, the Eagles came through with a huge 7-2 win over the Victoria Grizzlies (11-10-0) to spoil Victoria’s Teddy Bear Toss night inside The Q Centre.
Primo Self was the first star, and had 4 assists during the game. Michael Abgrall had 2 highlight reel goals, while Jake Bongo, Jacob Slipec, Grayden Slipec, Ante Zlomislic and Jacob Bonkowski rounded out the scoring for Surrey. Jacob and Grayden Slipec’s goals were both on the power-play, as Surrey’s power-play went 2 for 4 on the night and was instrumental in the win. Eli Pulver was solid all night and made 35 saves throughout the game to earn his 4th win of the season.
The Eagles got out to a great start in the 1st period with their 2 power-play goals and never looked back. The Eagles improved their lead to 4-0, but proceeded to give up two goals near the end of the second period as it looked like Victoria had found some life and was on the verge of a comeback. However, with just 6.9 seconds left the second period Abgrall scored a goal of the year candidate and put the game out of reach. Surrey added 2 more goals in the third period to seal the win and help the team climb back to .500.
For Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith, it was an easy game to be happy for the team after one of their best performances of the year. When asked about his initial thoughts, Cam was quick to praise how his team stuck to their game plan throughout the full 60 minutes. “The guys followed the game plan to a T tonight. We played within our systems, we kept pucks out of dangerous areas and we won the special teams battle. Our power-play needs to succeed, especially on the road, and they did the job tonight.”
Another key for Cam before the game was getting the defense involved offensively. Jimmy Darby assisted both power-play goals, while Brody Gagno and Tate Taylor both had an assist on Zlomislic’s breakaway tally. However, it was the play in their own end which really impressed the coach after the game. “Our defense did a great job of closing space on their forwards in their own end. Whenever they tried to bring pucks up on rushes, we were a stick length away which made it hard for them to generate speed in the neutral zone. When we did get stuck in our end, our guys dug down and made some really big stops when their offense started to roll. When their top end guys were out there, our guys did a really good job of making it hard on them.”
The big takeaway however was the Eagles finally looked like the team many expected them to be. The offense soared to new heights and scored 7 goals on both Victoria goaltenders in the win. After the game, Cam believed this could help propel this team to greater heights moving forward. “Collectively as a group, we all took a sigh of relief. That sense of belief finally came back to the locker room after that offensive explosion.”
The Eagles will look to climb above .500 for the first time this season tomorrow night as they’ll get set to face off against the Cowichan Valley Capitals. Puck drop from the Cowichan Community Centre is scheduled for 7:00pm, and you can catch all the action live on BCHL TV (Powered by HockeyTV) and on mixlr.com/eaglesbchl.
