SURREY 7 - VICTORIA 3
Surrey wins series 4-2
The Victoria Grizzlies gave the Surrey Eagles a serious scare, but in the end the B.C. Hockey League’s regular-season champions just had too many weapons to contain.
The Eagles’ top-ranked offence came flying out of the gate Saturday night at The Q Centre and made sure not to give the desperate home team facing elimination and the 1,396 fans in attendance any life in Game 6 of the Coastal Conference semifinal series. The Eagles scored three times in the first 12 minutes, all on quick, counter-attack odd-man rushes, and cruised to a 7-3 victory, winning the series 4-2 and making sure there would be no Game 7 on Monday night in Surrey.
The Eagles move on to face the Coastal Conference third-seed Alberni Valley Bulldogs in the conference final beginning Friday night at South Surrey Arena.
“Some bad luck at the start and they capitalized but you have to congratulate them, they finished about 30 points ahead of us in the standings so they’re a very good team and they showed it,” said Grizzlies GM and head coach Rylan Ferster.
“I feel bad for our guys right now, they worked really hard and it just didn’t work out.”
The Grizzlies’ offence started to come to life in the second period, but every time Victoria scored, the Eagles swooped in and snuffed out the momentum. Blue-liner Richard Baran, whose NCAA committed to Arizona State, brought the home crowd to life when he jumped on a rebound in the slot and fired one past Eagles netminder Jaiden Sharma on a power play with 6:25 left in the middle frame, cutting the Eagles lead to 3-1. But less than a minute later, Caden Cranston was left wide open at the side of the Grizzlies’ net and the Eagles sniper fired it past Oliver Auyeung-Ashton to restore Surrey’s three-goal lead.
Then it was Luc Pelletier bringing the Grizzlies back again with just three minutes left in the period. But a minute later, it was the Eagles again, this time Nathan Oickle was credited with a flukey one that went high into the air and over top of Auyeung-Ashton to put Surrey up 5-2 at the break.
Pelletier, who’s off to Princeton in the NCAA next fall, struck again five minutes into the third period to give the Grizzlies another shot of adrenalin. But five minutes later Massimo Fazio banked one off Grizzlies defenceman Nathan King and in to restore the Eagles’ three-goal lead.
Cranston rounded out the Eagles scoring with an empty-netter with 1:44 remaining.
Micah Berger, Zachary Wagnon and Evan Brown had the Surrey goals in the opening period.
“Obviously we’re not happy right now with the way things ended,” Ferster said. “But we took a big step from last year and we’ll keep on building.”
Auyeung-Ashton finished with 34 saves, while Sharma made 39 stops in the Surrey net to improve to 4-0 in the post-season.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Grizzlies were without NCAA Boston College-committed Tobias Pitka, who is in Finland playing for Team Slovakia at the Under-18 world championship. … The Interior Conference finalists are set as the No. 1 seed Penticton Vees will take on the No. 2 seed Salmon Arm Silverbacks beginning Thursday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton.
