The Langley Rivermen rolled into Coquitlam on Friday night to take on the Express in the first of back to back meetings with their lower mainland rivals.
A back and forth first period at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex had the Rivermen outshooting Coquitlam 15-6, but Eric Young in the Express goal kept the visiting team at bay.
Langley were gifted a powerplay 48 seconds into the second period, but 53 seconds into the man Rivermen’s advantage Coquitlam would score shorthanded to make it 1-0. 23 seconds later, Express captain James Shannon would score on a 2 on 1, also shorthanded making it 2-0 Coquitlam before the Rivermen could set up on the power play.
3:22 after the Shannon goal, Mason Kesselring would fire home a one timer on another Langley power play, cutting the Express lead in half.
2 minutes and 8 seconds after the Rivermen opener, Sid McNeill’s seeing eye shot from the left wing would beat Young making it 2-2.
The continuous pressure for Langley would pay off again, as Luke Pfoh would give the visitors their first lead of the night with 6 minutes to go in the second period.
Ryan Staples would tie the game 3-3 early in the third period, tipping in a point shot from Express defenceman Cooper Wilson.
Late in the third, Langley would get penalized following a big skirmish, giving Coquitlam a 7-minute power play.
The Rivermen were able to kill off the first half of it at the end of the third, forcing the game to overtime. It didn’t take long for Joseph Odyniec to win the game for the home team in the extra frame, beating Bodee Weiss with a wrister from the left circle with 1:55 gone in the overtime.
Saturday’s game started well for Langley, as Adyn Merrick scored his team leading 5th of the season off a pass from Luke Pfoh 5:14 in on a beautiful shot in tight.
The Rivermen lead would last until the 11:27 mark of the second period where former Langley man Andrej Kovacevic would rip a shot from the slot to tie it 1-1.
Langley would give themselves a lead going into the third period, as first year Rivermen Jack Bakker would streak down the left wing and rifle a shot over the glove side of Coquitlam’s goaltender Eric Young making it 2-1 Riv with 43 seconds to go in the middle frame.
2:33 into the third Austin Borggaard would tidy up a rebound in front for his second of the season, and Langley would have a two-goal lead.
10 minutes later, Coquitlam would cut the Rivermen lead to just one on a power play as Nate Crema deflected a James Shannon point shot on the power play, making it 3-2 with plenty of time left on the clock.
However, Charlie Tritt would turn aside the remaining attempts the Express would fire at the Rivermen goal, and Langley would hang on to win their 5th game of the young season.
This begins a busy week for the Rivermen, as they play 4 games over the next 7 days.
