EXPRESS MIXLR BROADCAST

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

RIVERMEN 7 EXPRESS 1

The Langley Rivermen snapped a three game losing streak and extended their winning streak over the Express to six with a 7-1 win at the Langley Events Centre Tuesday night.

Jakob Reichert (2G, 1A) and Austin Azurdia (1G, 2A) each had three points to pace the offence for Langley. Goaltender James Barr was very steady in the Langley crease turning aside 46 of 47 Express shots.

Langley opened the scoring just over 4 minutes into the game. Ben Butcher came out of the penalty box after serving the first penalty of the game. The puck came to him as he was exiting the box and he carried it into the Express zone and wired a shot over the glove of Cole Huggins.

After a faceoff in the Express zone, the Rivermen stole the puck behind the net, and then a couple of quick passes by Evan Anderson and Mario Puskarich to help set up Evan Campbell who tapped it home to make it a 2-0 lead.

The Express had a full line up tonight of 12 forwards and 6 defence. That included 5 AP's called up. And the youngsters, Eric Margo, Anthony Conti, Jackson Cressy, Spencer Quon and Nick Hermary all provided good energy for the Express all game long. They helped create some of the better Express scoring chances all night long.

James Barr has been very steady in the recent games between the Express and Rivermen. Tuesday night was  no different. He turned aside all 11 Express shots in the first period.

The Express ramped up their game in the second period as they looked to get on the board. The Express pressure was rewarded midway through the period as Adam Rossignol scored off the rush on the backhand to get the Express on the board.

Rossignol had a great chance in his next shift to tie the game. He took a drop pass from Eric Margo and Rossignol's shot was denied deftly by Barr. That was part of a 20 save second period for the Langley netminder.

That save of Rossignol could have been a turning point in the game. Moments later Langley restored their two goal lead as Jakob Reichert squeezed a shot between the skates of Cole Huggins to give Langley a 3-1 lead. Reichert struck again minutes later as the Rivermen took advantage of an Express turnover behind their own net. The Rivermen capped off 3 goals in just under 5 minutes as Derek Sutliffe scored at 18:33 to make it 5-1.

Cole Huggins was relieved in favour of Daniel Urbani after two periods after allowing 5 goals on 26 shots.

A nice three way passing play by the Rivermen in the third on the powerplay resulted in a goal by Austin Azurdia. Then Victor Dombrovsky rounded out the scoring as his shot hit the stick of an Express defender and got past Urbani.

The Express battled hard right down to the end with 15 shots in the third period finishing the game with 47 shots.

Langley's win put them one step closer to clinching the final playoff spot in the Mainland division. They now have a 5 point lead on the Express for 4th place. The Express have just 9 games left in the season and the Rivermen still have 4 games in hand.

The Express return home Saturday night vs. Surrey to begin a season high 8 game home stand.

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