Twenty-four hours after a disappointing opening-night loss, the Langley Rivermen took out their frustrations on the Coquitlam Express.
The Rivermen pumped in eight goals in a 8-1 drubbing of the Express on Saturday night at the George Preston Recreation Centre.
Langley also hosted the Chilliwack Chiefs on the Friday night with the visitors doubling the home side 6-3 on opening night of the junior A BC Hockey League season.
“All in all, I thought it was a pretty honest performance. The guys battled hard and bounced back Saturday and had a pretty good outing,” said Rivermen head coach Bobby Henderson.
“They really tightened things up and made some improvements.”
Langley led 2-0 after 20 minutes on Saturday but blew the game wide open in the middle stanza with five goals in the opening 8:33.
The Express did get one goal back before intermission but Langley scored late in the third to round things out.
The Rivermen used a balanced attack in the victory as seven players scored and 12 of the 18 registered at least a point.
Max Kaufman led the way with two goals, while Gavin Payne (one goal, two assists) and Andrew Dumaresque (three assists) each had three points.
Rookie Brendan Budy — one of four local products on the team — had a goal and an assist.
Bo Didur stopped 31 of 32 shots for the win as Langley out-shot Coquitlam 50-32.
Henderson liked his team’s bounce back after the loss.
“When you have a young team, the first win is usually the toughest one to get,” he said.
“To get it over with the next night was good for our guys. I thought it showed pretty good character, not getting down about the previous night.”
Langley had opened the scoring less than two minutes in but trailed 2-1 after 20 minutes.
And after tying the score early in the second, the Rivermen surrendered the go-ahead goal 35 seconds later. The teams then traded goals to close the period and Chilliwack scored the lone goal in the final period.
Ryan Barrow led Langley with goal and assist while Zac Masson and Nicholas Ponak had the others.
Didur took the loss, allowing all six goals on 33 shots.
“I thought we had a real good start on Friday. The game just got away from us with a couple of mental mistakes which cost us,” Henderson said.
Special teams were costly in the loss as Chilliwack went 2-for-2 while Langley was just 1-for-6 with the man advantage.
The Rivermen get another crack at the Chiefs on Saturday night, this time in Chilliwack.
They are then at Chilliwack’s Prospera Centre for the league-wide BCHL Bauer Showcase, which runs Sept. 22-25.
The team does not have another home game at the Preston Centre until Sunday, Oct. 2.
Gary Ahuja Langley Times
Langley Rivermen’s Trevor Ayre fires a shot on goal during Saturday’s BCHL game at the George Preston Recreation Centre. Ayre had a goal and an assist in his team’s 8-1 victory over the Coquitlam Express.
