EXPRESS CLIP EAGLES WINGS EARLY & OFTEN

It wasn't much of a contest in Coquitlam Friday night as the Express cruised to a 7-4 win over the Surrey Eagles.

The main story was a fast start by the Express and a complete 180 on the special teams compared to last Saturday vs. Langley.

Surrey opened the scoring on a goal by Kyle Madsen. Then the Express pulled away.

Destry Straight scored the goal of the year to date cutting around the Eagle defence then swept the puck past Andrew Hunt to tie it up.

Then Coquitlam struck on back to back 5 on 3's to expand their lead to 3-1 on Straight's 2nd of the game and a goal by Brad Reid. But that wasn't the end of the onslaught, Jessie Halikas and Mitchell Deacon rounded out the scoring and the Express took a 5-1 lead to the room after 20 minutes.

Massimo Lamacchia had a chance to expand the Express lead in the second as he was hauled down on a break after exiting the penalty box and was awarded a penalty shot. Lamacchia couldn't beat Hunt however as he kicked out his left pad and turn aside Lamacchia's bid.

Surrey used the momentum from the save to start to turn the game around. The Eagles responded with goals by Eric Cooper and Bradley McGowan to cut the Express lead to 5-3.

The McGowan goal at 16:01 also meant the end of the night for starter Khaleed Devji after allowing 3 goals on 15 shots.

The goaltending change caught the attention of the Express who responded with Jason Grecica's 3rd goal in 4 games vs. his old mates and Brad Reid's 2nd of the game on powerplay to restore the Express 4 goal lead after 40 minutes.

The Eagles Hayden Trupp rounded out the scoring at 8:53.

The Express powerplay finished 3 for 8 Friday night after going 0 for 5 in a 4-2 loss to Langley last Saturday. The penalty killing had its second perfect night of the season killing off all 7 shorthanded situations. The Eagles helped the Express penalty killing by wiping out 3 of their powerplay opportunities by taking a penalty while on the advantage.

Friday's perfect night on the penalty kill was just the 2nd time in 10 games this season the Express didn't allow a powerplay goal.

Coquitlam has won all 3 games on home ice vs. the Eagles this season.

The Eagles gave up 7 goals for a second consecutive night after getting trounced 7-1 in Langley Thursday night.

Shots:

Coquitlam 35
Surrey 27

3 stars:

3 - Massimo Lamacchia - 4 assists
2 - Garrick Perry - 4 assists
1 - Brad Reid - 2 goals 2 assists

The Express are back in action Saturday night taking on the Coastal Conference leading Langley Chiefs. Sunday the Express return home to play host to the Cowichan Valley Capitals.