Chilliwack, BC – The Surrey Eagles (27-25-0) looked to keep building momentum Wednesday night inside the Chilliwack Coliseum in search of their 4th straight win. Unfortunately, the Eagles didn’t bring their ‘A’ game and weren’t able to generate enough offense as their 3 game win streak was snapped in a 2-1 loss at the hands of the Chilliwack Chiefs (29-17-4).
It wasn’t the best night for Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith’s squad, as it was apparent from puck drop the Eagles didn’t have as much energy as they usually do heading into big games. The Eagles struggled to generate quality scoring chances and didn’t seem to have their legs in a game in which they were out-shot 26-22 overall. When asked about his initial thoughts on the game, Cam brought up the low energy level of his group throughout the game. “We just didn’t seem to have the energy to finish plays… We didn’t really execute the game plan as well as we wanted to, but we were still in the game in a tough arena to play so there’s some positives and some negatives to take out of tonight.”
The Eagles were only able to generate 7 shots in the first period, and gave up the first goal of the game when Brett Rylance tipped home a point shot between the legs of starter Max Prazma. In the 2nd period the Chiefs took a two goal advantage after Rylance danced between the Eagles defenders and found Chad Muller with a nice pass, and Muller made no mistake with a perfect shot short-side against Prazma. 27 seconds later, Drew Tsakounis scored with a seeing eye wrist shot to make it 2-1 but that was as close as Surrey came to tying the game.
In a game where the top players didn’t show up, the Eagles best line was their 4th line which consisted of Joel Plante, Ante Zlomislic and affiliate player & 2022-23 commit Matteo Speranza. When asked about the positives of the game, Cam spoke highly of the trio and Tsakounis who scored his teams only goal. “Our 4th line of young kids brought a lot of energy which sustained us through times where we had lulls. It was nice to see some contributions from guys who normally don’t get on the scoresheet, and it was nice to see Drew Tsakounis score a really nice goal from up top. We’ve been preaching shots from up top to generate chances and simplify our game. The positives of the game was the energy from our 4th line which we’ll need heading into playoffs.”
A big story for this team all season has been the lack of success on the powerplay, and the Eagles went 0 for 4 with the powerplay again tonight in the loss. When asked about why his team struggled with the man advantage, Cam was short and sweet with his answer. “Our powerplay got out worked tonight. We didn’t generate because we lost every battle and we were sluggish with the puck. Our powerplay didn’t work because Chilliwack’s PK out worked us.”
The Eagles will look to shake tonight off on Friday night with a rematch against the Chiefs inside the South Surrey Arena. Friday will also be the Eagles annual ‘Sock Toss Night’ in support of battling youth homelessness in Surrey. Puck drop is 7:00pm, and tickets are still available on our website. 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.
