Pulver Spectacular as Eagles take down Express in PoCo game.

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For the second straight season, the  Coquitlam Express held their special PoCo Game, where the team heads down the hill into Port Coquitlam, to host a game for one of the other sides of the Tri-Cities.  The newly renovated “John Baillie Arena” at the Port Coquitlam Community Centre was the site, and for the second straight season, Coquitlam welcomed their cross river rivals, the Surrey Eagles for the latest edition of the BCHL’s Battle of the Port Mann Bridge.

Surrey has been dominant over Coquitlam this year, even dating back to the preseason, where the Eagles beat the Express four times.  It carried over into the regular season with a 5-2 win on October 2nd at Porier Sports and Leisure, and and followed up with a 6-0 shutout win on home ice at the South Surrey Arena on November 25th.

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Six hundred and ninety one fans packed into John Baillie Arena at the Port Coquitlam Community Centre for Saturday nights matchup, including members of council from the Tri-Cities, one of which being Port Coquitlam Councilor and former Global News anchor Steve Darling.

The game began with a breakneck pace between the two teams, as the Eagles and the Express went into this one guns a-blazin’.  Adam Manji got the start between the pipes for Coquitlam, while Surrey went with their All-Star goaltender, Eli Pulver.  Surrey got the ice breaker in the first five minutes, when freshly returned forward Trent Wilson, only in his forth game back, came in on a two on one with The Professor Ante Zlomislic.  Wilson fed a perfect saucer pass over the defenders stick, right onto Zlomislic’s tape, and Ante made no mistake ripping it high glove past Manji to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Coquitlam would answer back after the first period media timeout, as Jason Gallucci fed a pass along the blue line to fellow defender Cam Moger, and he let go a shot through a pile of bodies in front of the Surrey net, eluding Eli Pulver and finding the back of the net to tie the game at one goal a piece.

When in doubt, take the Expo Line.

One of the big lineup moves before this game from Eagles Head Coach Cam Keith was to reunite Surrey’s top line of Jake Bongo, Aaron Schwartz, and Cole Galata, AKA The Expo Line.  Surrey’s other All-Star and CanucksArmy’s favourite player Jake Bongo would dump the puck in to the Coquitlam zone for newly added defender Josh Wessels.  Wessels would bump it back up the wall for Aaron Schwartz, who walked his way off the wall, into the high slot, and let go a seeing eye shot which beat Adam Manji between the arm and the body to give Surrey the 2-1 lead.  It was the team leading 13th goal of the season for the “Dawg” Aaron Schwartz, as he got the monkey off his back after being held goalless for his previous four games.  It was also the third point in five games for Josh Wessels, since he joined the Eagles two weeks ago.

Shots on goal were even at fourteen a piece, but the second period was ALL EXPRESS in the shots department, but the Pulverizer had other plans.  Eli Pulver might’ve had his game of the season (so far) between the pipes for the Eagles on Saturday night in PoCo, which is really saying something when you realize that Pulver leads the BCHL in shutouts this season with four.  The Pulverizer provides strong, positional goaltending on a consistent basis, and he’s truly been the anchor for Surrey this season.  Pulver made thirteen saves in the first period of play, and added another fourteen stops in the second period, many of the spectacular variety.  His best of the period, and the game as a whole, was his stop on Drew Garzone, as Garzone and Colton Alexander came in on a partial two on one after the Eagles failed to clear the zone, Alexander dished across to Garzone who was robbed by the right pad of Eli Pulver.

The third period was much of the same as the rest of the game.  Coquitlam would gain the attacking zone, set up a play.  If it wasn’t thwarted by Tate Taylor, Ty Brassington, or one of Surrey’s other defensemen, the Express would work the puck around, open a lane for either a cross ice pass or a shot.  Either way, it would be stopped by Eli Pulver.  Pulver would add another fourteen saves in the third period, totaling at forty one saves in the victory.  Surrey just played a perfect road game, one which Head Coach Cam Keith and Assistant Coach Matt Dawson would probably dream of.  Grabbed an early lead, took the crowd out of it, and rode it to victory.  Although the game was far from low event, Surrey played a very strong game overall, but we’re definitely carried to victory by their goaltender on this night.  Eli Pulver was named as the game’s first star.

With the victory on Saturday night, Surrey increased their lead in the standings over third place Coquitlam to six points, but still trail the Nanaimo Clippers for top spot in the BC Hockey League’s Coastal Conference.  The Express are back in action at Porier Sports and Leisure Centre next Friday when they welcome the Victoria Grizzlies to town.  On the other side of the Port Mann Bridge, the Eagles are back on home ice on Sunday afternoon for a matchup with the Langley Rivermen, as it’s Teddy Bear Toss night at the South Surrey Arena, where the Eagles will be raising money for Wigs For Kids BC and the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.  “Throw Bears” can be purchased by donation for $1, $2, or $5, with the donations going to Wigs For Kids.  The Eagles are also accepting toy and stuffed animal donations, where fans will be able to trade their new, clean toys in for a throw bear, and their traded in toy will be donated to BC Children’s Hospital.

 

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