by Eddie Gregory |
Holden Katzalay scored a natural hat-trick to round out the scoring to pace the Surrey Eagles to a 4-1 win over the Express handing them their 4th loss of the season. Click here for boxscore
Surrey was desperate to get back in the win column with just two wins in their previous 11 games. As the game went on they ramped up their game and pulled away from the Express.
Jack Watson got his second start of the season and did all he could on this night to keep the Express within striking distance. He made a number of notable first period saves early on. First on a bang bang play in tight on Christophe Tellier. Late in the period with the Express on the powerplay he made a glove save to deny Adamo Santia on a two on one. That was his warm up for what was to come later in the game.
At the other end Ryan Tattle danced into the Surrey zone and fired a cross ice pass to Cooper Connell who cut to the net. His shot was stopped by Tommy Scarfone, but Josh Wildauer followed up to bury the rebound for a 1-0 Express lead after one.
Then right from the start of the second period it was one sided in favour of Surrey. Early on a scramble chance went through Watson’s crease and the Express were lucky it didn’t bounce in.
Minutes later Watson kicked off a Surrey powerplay with a great pad save on a backdoor set up for Tellier. He would cap off a strong sequence by stretching out his right leg and held it strong to keep the puck out as Surrey tried to jam it in.
Eventually Surrey’s relentless pressure broke through to even it up on a goal by Wyatt Schlatt re-directing a puck thrown to the net.
The Surrey pressure kept on coming and Holden Katzalay converted a set up from behind the net from Hudson Schandor just over three minutes later to give Surrey a 2-1 lead.
Surrey’s dominance in play was reflected in addition to the score by opening up a 14-0 advantage in shots in the opening half of the second period. Kabir Gill finally got the Express first shot of the second period just shy of the 10 minute mark.
The Express showed a few sparks of life as the period wore on, but could never really turn the tide in the period.
Even a double minor powerplay for the Express couldn’t get them going. A turnover at the offensive blueline allowed Katzalay to go the other way on a breakaway where he attempted to tuck the past Watson. Initially the play was ruled emphatically as no goal despite Katzaly’s best effort to sell the call the other way.
Finally after a lengthy discussion the call was overturned and Surrey was credited with a shorthanded goal and a 3-1 lead after two periods.
There was minimal pushback in the third and the Express never really threatened a comeback. The game was put to bed on a empty net goal from Katzalay to finish off the natural hat-trick giving Surrey a 4-1 lead.
The shots finished 35-23 in favour of Surrey.
The Express return home Sunday afternoon to face Langley for a 6th time in their first 17 games.
