It figures that a kid named Santaguida would be at his best this time of year.
Michael Santaguida was the hero Saturday night as his Surrey Eagles blanked the Chilliwack Chiefs 3-0 at Prospera Centre.
The Surrey netminder stopped 41 shots, helping his team take both ends of a home-and-home series. His Eagles beat Chilliwack 5-3 in Surrey Friday night.
Saturday’s was a goalie battle from start to finish.
Mitch Gillam was Mitch Gillamish at the Chilliwack end, making big stops look routine.
His Eagle counterpart had one particularly good stretch midway through period two. First, he got his right leg on a Spencer McHaffie shot as the Surrey native cruise unchecked through the slot. Seconds later, Luke Esposito drove wide around Tommy Stipancik and cut hard to the net. He tried to out-wait Santaguida, but the 19-year-old stretched post to post, leaving Esposito with nothing to shoot at.
Seconds after that, a Ben Isreal point shot almost snuck between the goalies right skate and the right goal post.
But Santaguida kicked it off the goal-line to keep the game scoreless.
The Ontario native took another one for the team early in period three, with a McHaffie one-timer from 15 feet out clanging right off his mask.
The game finally got a goal at 4:24 of period three.
Trevor Cameron pulled the trigger on his seventh of the year, fighting off an Eric Roberts check in front of the net to bury the rebound off a Devon Toews shot.
The Eagles applied the dagger with 3:50 left.
Brady Shaw did the damage, evading Trevor Hills and a Gillam pokecheck before stuffing his team leading 18th of the year past the Chiefs keeper.
Michael Stenerson scored an empty netter with 1:26 left to wrap up the scoring.
The three stars were Santaguida (first), Austin Plevy (second) and Gillam (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Hills.
Announced attendance was 3,369.
Chilliwack is back home next Friday, hosting the Coquitlam Express with a 7 p.m. start time.
