The Surrey Eagles continued their strong play on home ice on Friday night, staking the Burnaby Express to a two-goal third period lead but scoring four of their own in the final 20 minutes of a 5-3 victory over their Lower Mainland rivals.
Burnaby's Rich Manley had opened the scoring 18 seconds into the second period before Eagles forward Michael Krgovich evened the score on a shorthanded effort two minutes later. The Express regained the lead late in the period on a Matt Ridley goal, and seemed to take control when captain Dylan Herold put his team ahead by two just a minute into the final period.
But Surrey woke up offensively shortly thereafter, with Richard Vanderhoek beating Express netminder Harrison May from a strange angle to bring the Eagles back within a goal. Chris Santiago, Andrew Wallace and Krgovich, with his second of the night, proceeded to add third period markers to take the game going away.
Krgovich finished with three points on the night, while Tyler Morley and Wallace each contributed two-point efforts. Express forward Jon Puskar assisted twice for his second multi-point game in as many nights.
Paul Barclay moved to 6-2 on the season with a 24-save performance in the win, while May was bombarded by 45 shots in a losing effort.
The teams complete a weekend home-and-home series on Saturday when the Eagles and Express meet at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre. Faceoff is set for 7:30 PM.
