The Coquitlam Express were back in action on Tuesday night as they travelled all the way to Chilliwack for their game 3 battle with the Chilliwack Chiefs in the 2023 Shaw BCHL Playoffs. The Express were looking to cut the series lead in half and not give the Chiefs the commanding 3-0 series lead that every team so desperately wants to have.
The first period looked to mimic game’s 1 and 2’s first period, and by that I mean it had no scoring, until 3 minutes left in the frame when Aaron Davidson would take an interference penalty to give the Express a power play which they did not disappoint on. Gavin Gieschbrecht scored his 1st power play goal of the playoffs followed shortly after the power play by the Chilliwack fan favourite, Luke Vardy, scoring his first of the playoffs to give the Express a 2-0 lead after 1.
The foot didn’t get taken off the gas by the Express in the second as Ray Hamlin scored to make it a 3-0 game just 5 minutes into the second period. Aaron Davidson took another interference penalty to set the Express up on the man advantage that Hamlin put home and they cruised with a 3-0 lead after two.
Tyler Kopff scored his second of the playoffs, his first since scoring the game tying goal in game 2 to send that game to overtime, and he gave the Express a 4-0 lead with just 8 minutes remaining in the game. Chilliwack responded shortly after with their own tally but it wasn’t enough as Evan Brown inevitably put one into their empty net to secure a game 3 W for the Express with a 5-1 victory and cutting the series lead to 2-1 for Chilliwack.
The Express are back in action Wednesday night as they take on the Chilliwack Chiefs once again for Game 4 at the Chilliwack Coliseum. Come out and support our boys as they look to tie the series in Game 4.
