By: Isabella Urbani PHOTO: Brandon David (BrandonDavidImages)
SURREY – Wednesday night’s affair at South Surrey Arena unfolded as unusually as a mid-week game for the home team. Despite scoring five goals on Nanaimo rookie goalie Kyan Labbé, Surrey found themselves down and out for much of the game’s duration until the start of the third period when they cut Naniamo’s largest four-goal lead down to one.
Surrey goaltender Colton Jugnauth started his second consecutive home game after Jaiden Sharma got the call in the pipes for the team’s last game, a 4-3 shootout win against Langley. But a trio of Nanaimo’s goals before the end of the third period would end Jugnauth’s night prematurely.
The first was scored by Alex Hebblethwaite after teammate Patrick Fortune’s pass on a breaking 2 on 1 sent him in alone on a breakaway, where he shelved the puck blocker side. 1-0 Nanaimo. Mere minutes later, Hebblethwaite struck again, once more alone and at the front of the net.
Hebblethwaite picked up the puck on the farside wall just shy of centre ice after a good save from Nanaimo’s Labbé was cleared out of the zone. Heading into Surrey’s zone alone with two defenders converging on him, Hebblethwaite willed his way to the front of the net. Switching to his forehead, Hebblethwaite beat Jugnauth, who got a piece of the puck before it snuck through under the blocker, to quickly double Naniamo’s lead in showy fashion. 2-0 Nanaimo.
Nanaimo, eager to erase their 4-1 loss to Langley the following night, and with their wits to do it, continued to find the back of the net. Connor Haynes gave chase off a Clippers dump in the zone, chipping the puck past a Surrey defender and finding teammate Luke Lavery, at the front of the net, for a five-hole tap-in. 3-0 Nanaimo. Shots 11-8 Surrey.
After a disjointed first, the Eagles wasted all but 37 seconds to get a much-needed goal to open the middle frame. Forward Cam Russo was rewarded for his forechecking efforts after a Nanaimo player coughed up the puck in the high slot, roofing it past Labbé. 3-1 Nanaimo.
However, the barrage of goals was just starting for both teams, scoring three times each in the second period: four of which came less than four minutes apart. Joel Plante restored Naniamo’s three-goal lead, burying the 2 on 1 pass from Cole Lonsdale to beat Sharma for the first time since coming in for relief. 4-1 Nanaimo.
Dean Toskos was the next Eagle to score, picking up the puck from captain Jackson Anderson who entered the zone, 4 on 1, before blowing a tire and riffling it bardown. 4-2 Nanaimo. The Clippers charged back with two goals of their own four seconds apart from captain Connor DeTurris and Hebblethwaite for the hattrick.
DeTurris ripped home his second of the season on a cross-ice pass from Plante who set him up for the one-timer. 5-2 Nanaimo. Hebblethwaite scored his hattrick goal after a good keep-in by Chase Hull for Nanaimo at the line. 6-2 Nanaimo. With the Clippers holding their biggest lead of the night, Surrey finished the frame scoring two more goals to match Naniamo’s total for the period.
Miles Burgin found the back of the net for the first time this season after being slipped the puck by Massimo Fazio and lifting it past Labbé, who lost his stick going for the poke-check. 6-3 Nanaimo. Nolan Flynn finished the period by slamming home the rebound created off a great glove save by Labbé, which took a fortunate bounce. 6-4 Nanaimo. 21-14 Surrey.
Surrey scored their third consecutive goal, which would stand as their last, from leading goal scorer Brady Kudrick. Flynn, who picked up the primary assist on the play, came flying into the Clippers zone after receiving a saucer pace from Yuchan Kong. After circling the net, Flynn centred a no-look pass to a net-front Kudrick for the goal. 6-5 Nanaimo.
While coming within one, Surrey was unable to slow Nanaimo’s scoring, which combined for three more goals. Their first of the third period served as the game’s only power-play goal and the second from Lavery. Hebblethwaite recorded his fourth and final goal of the game on his second breakaway, tucking it in five-hole. 8-5 Nanaimo.
With one minute remaining in a game where the Eagles struggled to chip away at the lead without surrendering an odd-man rush, Nanaimo scored their ninth goal with less than a minute remaining. 9-5 Nanaimo. Flynn was the game’s third star with his two-point performance (1G, 1A), and Russo (1G, 1A) was the FortisBC Energy Player of the Game.
Surrey (2-3-0-0) will look to strengthen their home record when they clash with their first Albertan team of the year, the Blackfalds Bulldogs (0-5-0-0) on Friday, October 11 for Country Night. Puck drop is at 7:00 p.m
