There was no luck involved with the Langley Rivermen winning their seventh straight contest.
The junior A squad cruised to a relatively easy 6-1 win over the Surrey Eagles Thursday night at South Surrey Arena.
The win improved the Rivermen’s record to 24-15-5-2 — but even with their seven-game undefeated streak, they appear to be locked into third place in the B.C. Hockey League’s Mainland Division.
That’s because the second place Chilliwack Chiefs (31-10-5) and front-running Wenatchee Wild (35-7-4) have run away from the rest of the divisional pack.
Meanwhile, the fourth-place Prince George Spruce Kings (19-20-3-2) are 12 points back of the Rivermen and have little chance of catching up to Langley by the end of the BCHL’s 58-game season.
The Eagles (15-29-3) and Coquitlam Express (10-37-1-2) are having woeful campaigns and round out the division.
Kaufman sets tone
Before the game was three minutes old, Langley’s Max Kaufman had scored his 21st and 22nd of the season to stake the Rivermen to a 2-0 lead.
The Eagles’ Nick Fea answered at the 11:54 mark of the opening frame to narrow the deficit to 2-1 after 20 minutes of play.
The Rivermen took over in the second period, outshooting the Eagles 16-9 while outscoring them 3-0 on goals from John Schuldt, Ryan Barrow and Eric Butte .
Sean Gulka scored on a Rivermen power play, assisted by Barrow, at the 3:16 mark of the third period to round out the night’s scoring.
The Rivermen had a chance to make it 7-1 when Satchel Clendenin was awarded a penalty shot at the 14:56 mark of the third period, but he was denied by Eagles goaltender Keelan Williams.
At the other end of the rink, Langley netminder Braedon Fleming stopped 28 of 29 shots to pick up his sixth win of the season.
Fleming has only lost once this year, and has a stellar 2.35 goals against average and .924 save percentage.
Next up for the Rivermen is a home date against Coquitlam on Saturday. Game time at the George Preston Recreation Centre is 6 p.m.
