Township of Langley, BC (Thursday, November 5, 2015) – The Langley Rivermen picked up their third straight win, with a 10-4 defeat over the Surrey Eagles on Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre. It marked the second meeting between the teams in a span of five days. Nick Trencianksy started in net for the Rivermen, while Daniel Davidson got the call for the Eagles.
Dominic Franco made his presence felt early in the game. After missing the last nine games due to injury, the hulking forward took a drop pass from Torrin White off the rush in the Surrey zone and fired a shot off the post and into the net for his third goal of the season. The Riv were not done there, as Matty Saharchuk scored a power play goal at the 10:14 mark. Saharchuk took a pass at the top of the left circle and fired a quick shot past Davidson to give his team a 2-0 lead. It was Saharchuk’s ninth goal of the year, and fourth in the last three games. With 7:36 to play, Surrey got on the score sheet with a goal from Ty Westgard. The one goal game was short lived, as Franco scored his second of the period, with this one coming on a two man advantage. The Riv did great work to pass around the perimeter, which left Franco open in front of the net and made no mistake. Justin Szeto and Adam Sinclair had the helpers. With less than five minutes to play, Zach Blueler would make it a 4-1 game with a hard slap shot that beat Davidson blocker side. Logan Mick got the only assist on Blueler’s first of the season. Langley fired 21 shots Surrey’s way through 20 minutes, while Trenciansky stopped six of seven.
In the second, Justin Fregona added to his goal total with his 14th of the season at the 3:56 mark. After taking a cross-ice pass from Matthew Graham off the left-wing, Fregona ripped a shot top corner on Davidson to make it a 5-1 game. However, Surrey responded with a power play goal shortly after, courtesy of John Wesley to cut the deficit to three. At 10:46, Paul McAvoy scored his fifth goal of the season from a sharp angle to get Surrey to within two goals, but less than a minute later, Logan Mick capitalized on a rebound to make it a 6-3 score. Forbes Ploszaj took over in net for Davidson after Mick’s second of the season. With 20 seconds left, Matthew Graham capped off a frantic period, as he notched his ninth tally of the season with a quick shot from the high slot off the rush. Fregona picked up the lone assist on the play. In total, 22 shots were fired on both nets and five goals were scored between the teams in the middle frame.
To begin things in the third period, Graham scored his second goal of the game coming on a breakaway. Bleuler made a perfect blue line to blue line pass to spring Graham in all alone on Ploszaj, and he between him between the legs to make it 8-3. Minutes later, Max Kaufman scored his first of the evening to make it a 9-3 game. Szeto had the only assist on Kaufman’s eighth of the season. After Will Campion received a misconduct, Jeffrey Stewart scored a power play goal for the visitors to make it a 9-4 score. At the 14:05 mark, the scoring was capped off by Bleuler, who had a career game scoring his second goal on a hard shot from the top-right circle. Szeto picked up his third assist of the night on the goal.
In the win, 14 skaters picked up at least a point, while six had multi-point efforts. Blueler led the way with two goals and two assists. Over the last three games, the offense has racked up a total of 21 goals, while the defense and goaltenders have only allowed nine. The Rivermen jump over Chilliwack in the standings with a 12-6-0-0 record and will face the Chiefs on Friday night at Prospera Centre.
NOTES: Shots on Goal: LAN 38, SUR 30. Power play: LAN 2/6, SUR 2/4. Three Stars: 1st: LAN Zachary Bleuler, 2nd: LAN Matthew Graham, 3rd: SUR Paul McAvoy.
