The Langley Rivermen traveled to South Surrey Arena on Friday night for their first road trip of the season to take on last year’s BCHL Champions the Surrey Eagles.
Surrey opened the scoring at 12:45 on a scramble play in front, but Mason Kesselring would snipe a shot home 3:29 later off an offensive zone faceoff win by Ryan Schelling to equalize for Langley going into the second period. 2
Langley piled on an additional 16 shots in the second period, but it took them until 1:26 left in the frame to give themselves the lead.
BCHL debutant on the night Will Shepard took a pass from Hunter Curtis, beat a number of Eagles players in the neutral and attacking zone, firing a wrister over the glove of Surrey goaltender Colton Jugnauth for his first BCHL goal in style.
Ryan Schelling would score his second goal in as many games in the third period on a power play extending the Rivermen’s lead to 3-1 with 6 minutes to go in the third. Bodee Weiss made a pair of miraculous saves to keep Langley’s lead to two, and Ethan Merner would add on a late empty net goal ensuring the visitors would walk away with a 4-1 win in their first meeting of the season against Surrey. Another strong performance from Weiss who stopped 34/35 in the Riv net for his second BCHL win.
Saturday night, it was Surrey’s turn to be the visiting team, but it was Langley who came out firing as they did on Friday, however had all of their 14 shots turned aside by Eagles netminder Jaiden Sharma in the opening period.
Some great end to end hockey to start the second period allowed Surrey to capitalize on an odd man rush as Jackson Anderson would one time a pass into the Rivermen net with 9:49 gone in the second. But like Friday, it didn’t take long for Langley to respond as Merner would tap a rebound into the Surrey net 5 minutes later tying the game at 1-1 going into the third.
Surrey would take the lead early in the third, but Will Shepard would tip in a Ty Creech point shot for his second goal in as many games, once again equalizing for the home side.
Brady Toskos would give the Eagles what looked like the winner with 4:53 to go on a one timer in front. The Riv would keep the pressure on and once Ryan Schelling would score his third goal in as many games against his former team, tying the game at 3-3 forcing the game to overtime.
Langley out chanced and outshot Surrey in the extra frame, even having a late power play but Sharma was equal to the task, sending the game into a shootout.
Anderson would again play hero for Surrey, as he tucked the puck past Weiss on the Eagles third shot, and Sharma would turn aside a Carsten Kayter tying attempt for Langley, and Surrey would take the second of back to back games 4-3 in a shootout.
