EXPRESS MIXLR BROADCAST

Thursday, October 14, 2010

EXPRESS LEAP PAST EAGLES

The Coquitlam Express leaped past the Surrey Eagles and pulled into a tie for 2nd place in the Coastal Conference following the Express 7-5 win in Surrey Wednesday night.

Destry Straight continued to dazzle by scoring his first BCHL hat-trick and added an assist.

The Express didn't get off to the start they wanted falling behind 2-0 before the game was 8 minutes old.

But by the time the first period was done the Express battled back to tie it on Straight's first of the game shorthanded and a powerplay goal by Jason Grecica.


Click to hear Straight's shorthanded marker.
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For Grecica, it was his 6th goal of the season and 4th vs. his old Surrey Eagle mates this season.

Riley Mcintosh gave the Express their first lead in the second period just firing the puck towards the net and it hit a body and bounced past Vinny Lessard.

Scott Holm pulled the Eagles even with his first BCHL goal in his first BCHL game at 15:47. But the game didn't remain tied for long thanks to the Express exciting rookie.

Destry Straight took a feed from Brad Reid and quicky deked to his backhand and put it past Lessard to give the Express a one goal lead going to the third.

Click to hear Straight's second goal of the game.
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Richard Vanderhoek pulled the Eagles even at 4 with a powerplay marker at 3:47.

The Express had a response of their own on the powerplay shortly thereafter. Garrick Perry made a nice spin back hand pass cross crease to Brad Reid who buried it to re-store the Express lead.

Then just 51 seconds later Garrick Perry was hauled down going to the Eagles goal and was awarded a penalty shot. The Express Captain made no mistake wiring a quick shot past Lessard to give the Express a 6-4 lead.

Click to hear Perry's penalty shot goal.
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Jeff Vanderlugt set up a dramatic finish by pulling the Eagles back within one with a powerplay goal with 2:23 to go.

Vanderlugt then appeared to have the game tying goal on his stick with just over a minute remaining as he wired a shot from the high slot but Khaleed Devji came up with his biggest save of the game to keep the Express in the lead.

Then in the dying seconds Garrick Perry and Destry Straight teamed up to get the puck out of the Express zone. Then Perry fed Straight who iced the game with his hat-trick goal.

It was the second straight game that a Express player had a 3 goal outing following Massimo Lamacchia's 3 goal performance Sunday afternoon vs. Cowichan Valley.

The Express continue to light the lamp with quite a regularity. They have now scored 28 goals in their last 4 games maintaining 7 goal per game average in that time.

The Express are now 4-1 this season vs. the Surrey Eagles. The win was the first this season by a road team between the Express and Eagles. Coquitlam also clinched a winning record vs. the Surrey Eagles in the 7 games played between the two clubs from the end of September to the final 2 meetings between these two clubs through the end of October.

Khaleed Devji picked up the win for the Express stopping 37 of the 42 shots sent his way.

But for all their offensive exploits, the coaches would still like to see the Express improve their defensive game. It can be a little easy to overlook the fact that the Express are allowing 3.7 goals per game when they're putting an average of 4.8 pucks in the opposition net per game.

And I'm sure the coaches would like to see the 34.8 shots on goal allowed per game average come down.

The Express are back in action Friday night at home vs. the Westside Warriors.




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