Jordan Kawaguchi scored the winner with less than a second left in double overtime as his Chilliwack Chiefs toppled the Surrey Eagles 5-4 at Prospera Centre Saturday night.
For the second time in three days the lowly Surrey Eagles (1-6-1-0) provided feisty opposition for the Chilliwack Chiefs.
The Eagles shocked Chilliwack 8-2 Thursday night, earning their first win of the season.
The Saturday night rematch at Prospera Centre saw Surrey hold one-goal leads four times in an old-school firewagon game. The defensive play, or lack thereof, will have Chiefs head coach Jason Tatarnic and Surrey bench boss Blaine Neufeld wanting to burn the tape.
Both teams were sloppy with their coverage and treated the puck like a hand grenade.
Entertaining to watch but a coach’s worst nightmare.
Surrey opened the scoring on a power play at 5:01. Tyler Cooper skated down from the left point and threw a wrist shot toward the net. Ashton Calder bunted it out of the air and Desi Burgart poked it across the line.
Jake Smith evened it up at 9:01. Flying down the left wing on a two-on-one rush, the New York native rifled a bullet past Surrey keeper Michael Botiz for his first of the season.
Surrey took just 46 seconds to answer back.
Burgart got the assist, swooping behind the Chilliwack net and putting a pass into the goal-mouth where Robert Johnson buried it.
The see-saw battle continued at 15:25 with Chiefs forward Tommy Lee tying it up.
The Calgary native scored shorthanded, wading into the goal-mouth in pursuit of a Jordan Kawaguchi centering pass. Lee found the puck with his back to the net and wheeled 180 degrees, sweeping the puck past Botiz for his third of the year.
Surrey took 96 seconds to answer that one on a Darius Davidson tally.
The 20 year old scored on a two-on-one rush, burying the rebound of a Paul McAvoy shot.
Chilliwack owned play in the middle frame and got the only goal.
Kawaguchi collected his fifth of the season at 1:10 to knot the score at 3-3.
But the Eagles grabbed their fourth lead of the game 1:53 into the final frame on a goal by Jacob Dupont. Stepping out of the penalty box after serving a double-minor, the Quebec native took a breakaway pass from Jeffrey Stewart, skated in and slipped a five-hole shot through Chilliwack netminder Mark Sinclair.
For the fourth time in the game the Chiefs drew even.
This time it was Linden Hora streaking down the right wing, collecting a cross-ice pass from Jesse Lansdell and sniping the puck under the cross-bar for his third of the season.
The Chiefs spent the last 2:50 on the power play, including a 10 second five-on-three, and opened overtime with one minute of PP time still on the clock. A massive save by Sinclair on Dupont got Chilliwack to three-on-three OT where Kawaguchi finally ended it.
With less than a second left and the crowd yelling for the captain to shoot, No. 28 hammered it from the top of the right faceoff circle. The puck blew past Botiz on the 44th Chiefs shot of the game.
Kawaguchi was named the game’s second star.
Linden Hora was the first and Surrey’s Darius Davidson the third.
Kale Kane was the Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game.
