The Surrey Eagles claimed the inaugural Crescent Point Western sa国际传媒 Cup on Saturday night, beating the Brooks Bandits 4-1.
Jordan Klimek, Drew Best, Demico Hannoun and Craig Wyszomirski all scored for the sa国际传媒 Hockey League champions while Michael Santaguida was at his scrambling best, stopping 39 of the 40 shots fired his way.
Cam Maclise scored the Bandits only goal while Michael Fredrick made 26 saves in the loss.
The win secures a spot in the RBC Cup, the Canadian Junior Hockey League championship, in Summerside, P.E.I. for the Eagles. They will be joined by the Bandits who earned the second berth from the west by beating the Yorkton Terriers 1-0 in Sunday鈥檚 tournament finale. Mark Logan scored the lone goal for Brooks.
The trophy is nice, but it was a secondary goal for the Eagles.
鈥淲e鈥檙e finally going to where we want to be,鈥� said Sanataguida.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a big deal to win the league, but we had to kind of forget about that because every team here won their league and everyone is a champion. We had to re-prove ourselves here, and we did that. We鈥檙e going to celebrate tonight and move on to focusing up and getting ready for bigger things.鈥�
Surrey opened the scoring at 9:20 if the first period, as forward Trevor Cameron had a break away broken up, and was then nailed by a back-checking Bandit, but Klimek followed up, grabbed the loose puck at the top of the slot and fired a shot over Frederick鈥檚 glove.
The Eagles played solidly defensively as well, killing off all three penalties they took.
Surrey scored early in the second period as Best finished off a give-and-go with Brady Shaw at 2:35 and Hannoun made it 3-0 at 11:35, finishing off a pretty play by Cameron.
Wyszomirski delivered the dagger 4:04 into the third period, blasting a shot from the point past Frederick.
While CJHL player of the year finalist Maclise did get one back for Brooks at 6:50 of the third on a power play, it was far too little and far too late.
Shutting the door most of the night was the diminutive Santaguida, who is generously listed at five-foot-nine and 175 pounds, stood tall in net, as he has all season for Surrey.
鈥淚t was a good team effort and he made some big saves for us, but he has all year,鈥� said Eagles head coach Matt Erhart. 鈥淔or the outsider looking in it鈥檚 a big night. For us it鈥檚 almost typical Michael, he鈥檚 been so good for us.鈥�
Getting the top seed out of the WCC gives the Eagles an advantage of a couple of extra days of rest, something they need after being the last team to wrap up their league championship series.
For the Bandits, they鈥檙e in a very similar position as the Eagles, they only wanted to qualify for the RBC Cup, they didn鈥檛 care how they did it.
But along the way, they learned a lot about what to expect in Summerside.
鈥淲e learned a lot more about the office and the energy of the building,鈥� said Bandits head coach Ryan Papaioannou. 鈥淲e understand that when it鈥檚 a Brooks Bandits Yorkton Terriers game in the middle of Vancouver Island, there鈥檚 probably not a lot of local interest, so it was tough to build energy. But that鈥檚 just what it is when you come off playing playoffs in your own building.
鈥淚 think we understand when we get to Summerside, there鈥檚 not going to be any large crown that鈥檚 going to be pro-Brooks Bandits. We鈥檙e just going to have to make our own energy and worry about our on ice only.鈥�
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