The Coquitlam Express visited the Surrey Eagles Monday afternoon and came out with a victory! 6-4 was the final score.
This one felt good for the Express, who were dominated by the Eagles in the POD season back in April. Head coach, Brandon Shaw liked what he saw, but also sees room for improvement,
“The team had its ups and downs throughout the game, but they stuck with it and found a way to come out on the right side of it. It was good to see Connor MacKenzie stand tall for us in the third period when we needed him.”
Scoring was certainly not an issue Monday afternoon, but perhaps surprisingly, they saw 50% of their goals scored by defenders. Matthew Campbell led the way with two goals and a helper. Additionally, he played with a lot of tenacity and physicality. Shaw was very happy with Campbell’s performance,
“Campbell played a 200-foot game and helped us in many ways. He chipped in on the scoresheet and he was fantastic in transition and on the breakouts.”
Up front, it was the line of Jaeger Murdock, Tyler Schweitzer and Dante Berrettoni who carried the load offensively – Murdock and Berrettoni both tallied a goal and an assist.
As Shaw mentioned, MacKenzie was busy and answered the call in between the pipes, turning away 37 of 41 shots from the Eagles. He was particularly sharp late in the contest when the Eagles started to play with some desperation and piled up the shots.
The Express won the special teams battle Monday, going 2/3 on their powerplays and shutting down all four of the Eagles’ opportunities.
With the first game in the books, Shaw and the Express are looking forward to their next outing and an opportunity to see another batch of promising prospects.
The rest of the Express’ preseason schedule looks like this:
- Sept. 21 @ Langley – 7:15PM
- Sept. 22 vs Merritt – 7:00PM
- Sept. 24 vs Surrey – 7:00PM
- Sept. 29 vs Langley – 7:00PM
- Oct. 1 @ Chilliwack – 6:00PM
#AllAboard #WeAreAllExpress
