The Express were on the road Saturday night as they paid a visit to the Chilliwack Chiefs in what was these two teams’ first of four meetings in January.
The first period was a very eventful one as a total of five goals would be scored between these two clubs. The Chiefs opened the scoring just 70 seconds into the hockey game and then just under three minutes later, they went to a five-minute powerplay where they potted an additional two markers. Shortly after the powerplay expired, the Chiefs took a 4-0 lead before the midway point of the opening frame. Off the ensuing faceoff, Christian MacDougall dropped the gloves with Kienan Draper in hopes of sparking the Express and it worked. Right after the scrap, the Express stormed down the ice shorthanded and defender Luke Vardy buried one to cut the deficit down to three, which capped off the period’s scoring.
The Express came out flying in the second period and had a goal incorrectly disallowed just 38 seconds into the period. However, the Express didn’t let that deflate them and they kept pushing – Holden Cardinal buried one for the Express to cut the lead down to two, and then almost immediately after, Mateo Dixon buried one of his own to get the Express within one. The visitors outshot the Chiefs 11-5 in the period and were by far the better team in the period.
In the final 20 minutes of play, the Express just didn’t put together a strong enough push and failed to find the equalizer. To the Chiefs’ credit, they did a great job at clogging up the neutral zone and restricting the Express’ speed.
In our pregame article, we talked about the Chief’s lethal powerplay, how it killed the Express in their last outing, and how important staying out of the box in this game would be – the Express ultimately failed at this as Chiefs got five powerplay opportunities in the game and potted two on the man advantage.
The Express almost made a phenomenal comeback fueled by MacDougall’s fight in the first period, but just came up short in this one. Overall, they played strong, but a slow and undisciplined start killed them.
There was a lot of emotion and physicality in this one and these two teams won’t have to wait long to play again as the Chiefs will be in Coquitlam on January 21 and 22.
#AllAboard | #WeAreAllExpress
