EAGLES NEED OT TO DEFEAT EXPRESS

The Express picked up 3 out of 4 possible points this weekend after falling 4-3 in overtime to the Surrey Eagles Saturday night. That result comes 24 hours after a dramatic 5-4 win for the Express over Victoria Friday.

Burnaby has now picked up points in 3 of their last 4 games. The only game in that span where the Express didn't pick up points was last Sunday vs. the Cowichan Valley Capitals.

The red hot Rich Manley opened the scoring on one of the most beautiful goals you will see this season in the BCHL.

With the Express shorthanded, Brad Reid broke away with Manley, Reid came down the left wing lost his footing as he entered Surrey's zone, he was still able to dish the puck across the puck to Manley who knocked the puck out of the air and past Vinny Lessard.

The goal for Manley was his 5th in his last two games. That goal comes after Manley's first career 4 goal game in junior 24 hours earlier vs. Victoria.

Reid's helper extended his point streak to 4 games. (4G, 4A) And in Reid's last 7 games he has 6G, 4A, 10PTS.

Burnaby opened the 2nd period with a 2 man advantage for a full 2 minutes with Surrey being assessd a roughing penalty to Wes Vannieuwenhuizen and a bench minor at the 20:00 mark of the first period following some rough stuff at the horn.

Jimmy Geerin added to Burnaby's lead on the powerplay as he blasted home his 4th of the season to give the Express a 2-0 lead just 39 seconds into the second period.

The goal for Geerin extended his point streak to 4 games. (3G, 2A). Furthermore, Geerin has 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 points in his 11 games.

Surrey cut into Burnaby's lead midway through the 2nd period as Jason Grecica chipped the puck over Nick Enegren at 11:15.

Then in the final minute of the 2nd period the Eagles pulled even. Chris Santiago jammed the puck under Nick Enegren who was lying on the ice but behind his goal line and the powerplay goal saw the two teams head to the third period tied at 2.

It didn't take long for the Eagles to take their first lead of the game in the third period. Mike Krgovich came down the left wing and put a perfect pass on the tape of Grant Toulmin who had a tap in on a 2 on 1 break to give Surrey a 3-2 lead just 36 seconds into the third period.

The goal didn't rattle the recenlty resiliant Express. James Bettauer pulled the Express even less than 4 minutes later as his blast changed directions on Vinny Lessard and dribbled in to tie the game at 3.

The Express have now erased a third period deficit in 3 of their last 4 games.

For the 2nd straight meeting between these two teams at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre, Vinny Lessard was the difference between the Express and victory. He stopped 34 of 35 Express shots in a 2-1 Surrey win on October 17th. On this night, Lessard stopped 39 of 42 Express shots through 60 minutes as the teams went to overtime.

The extra session didn't last long as the Eagles controlled the puck in the opening minute of overtime in the Express zone, they bided their time and Adam Basford found Cole Gelly pinching in and the Eagles defenceman made no mistake picking the top corner on Nick Enegren for Gelley's 1st goal of the season on the only shot of overtime at 1:03 to give Surrey the 4-3 win.

The encouraging sign for the Express is the amount of rubber they've directed towards the oppostion goal the last 2 games. 42 Saturday vs. Surrey and 49 Friday vs. Victoria for 91 total shots on goal in the last 2 games.

It's also encouraging to see the Express show the ablity to come from behind in the third period for the 3rd time in the last 4 games.

In the race for the playoffs, the Express did fall one point back of Cowichan Valley as they knocked off the Prince George Spruce Kings 3-2 Saturday night. The Caps will wrap up their northern road trip Sunday afternoon in Williams Lake.

The expansion Timberwolves will be Burnaby's next opponent as they will pay a visit to the Bill Copeland Sports Centre Wednesday night. Then the pre-christmas schedule will wrap up for the Express Friday night when the Express host Jacob Verheyden and the Quesnel Millionaires.

GRIZZLIES @ EXPRESS HIGHLIGHTS

Here's the highlights of Friday's 5-4 dramatic OT win for the Express over the Grizzlies.



Highlights courtesy of Cary Derksen of Purple Penguin Productions.

MANLEY'S CAREER NIGHT LEADS EXPRESS IN COMEBACK WIN

Rich Manley had a night he'll never forget Friday at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre. The Buffalo native scored all 4 Express goals in regulation including the game tying goal with 3:27 remaining in the third period.

Then Brad Reid the former Victoria Grizzly played overtime hero scoring the game winning goal on a breakaway.

Victoria got off to a quick start by opening the scoring on their first shot of the game by Alex Allan just 16 seconds into the game.

By the time the second period was a minute old Victoria had built up a 3-0 advantage. Then Rich Manley went to work chipping away at the Victoria lead. He cut the lead down to two with his first of the game at 3:21.

Victoria restored their three goal lead moments later when Alex Allan set up Dustin Mowrey who blasted home the feed to give Victoria a 4-1 lead.

The Grizzlies top line of Alex Allan, Dustin Mowrey and Madison Dias was putting on quite a show of their own in the first half of the game combining for 4 goals and 6 assists for 10 points leading the Victoria attack.

Manley again cut Victoria's lead down to 2 before the 2nd period was done with his second of the game.

The Express went to the third trailing by 2 and the numbers indicated that a comeback was unlikely as the Express went into the third period Friday night with a record of 0-17 when trailing after 2 periods.

Manley completed his first BCHL hat-trick at 6:28 with a powerplay goal to cut the Victoria lead to one.

The momentum that Burnaby was building at that point could have been easily squashed seconds after Manley's third goal with Luke Challier being called for Unsportsmanlike conduct. The Express penalty killers bailed out their aggitator by killing off the penalty allowing themselves to stay withing striking distance of Victoria.

Manley continued his career night scoring his 4th of the game on a delayed penalty to Victoria to complete the Express comeback.

Hear Manley's 4th of the game here.

Manley joined some prestigous company in the Express 4 goal game club. Kyle Turris 4x, & Tyler McNeely are the only other players I have under my records who have scored 4 goals in a game. (My records go back only as far as the 04-05 season.)

The Grizzlies had one last chance to win the game before regulation was done when rookie defenceman Stefan Gonzales was called for tripping at 18:32. The Grizzlies had their chances before the third was done including Dustin Mowrey snapping a shot off the crossbar.

The Express held off at least until the end of regulation to pick up one point. They then killed off the remaining seconds of the Gonzales penalty in overtime at 4 on 3.

With a second life, the Express took advantage of the big kill and finished off the Grizzlies as Brodie Jamieson put a perfect stretch pass on the tape of Brad Reid who made no mistake on the breakaway deking to the forehand and sliding it past Ryan Holfield to give the Express their first OT win of the season.

Hear Reid's OT winner here.

The win allowed the Express to keep pace with the Cowichan Valley Capitals for the 7th and final playoff spot in the Coastal Conference as Cowichan Valley knocked off Quesnel 5-4 in Quesnel Friday.

Burnaby's attack generated a season high 49 shots on the Victoria goal Friday night.

The Express will return to action Saturday night when they play host to the Surrey Eagles.

HEROLD NAMED TO ALL STAR TEAM

Burnaby captain Dylan Herold will represent the Express at this years All Star game in Nanaimo.

Herold's in his 4th and final season in the BCHL. This season he has 11 goals and 6 assists for 17 points in 32 games.

Here's the full press release from the BCHL...

The British Columbia Hockey League today announced the team of All-Stars that will take on the Vernon Vipers at the 2010 BCHL All-Star Game in Nanaimo on January 13th in Nanaimo. The BCHL All-Star squad includes a starting line-up and two coaches from each conference, Coastal and Interior.

Coastal Conference Starting Line-Up:

Forwards: Colton Beck (Langley Chiefs), Mike Krgovich (Surrey Eagles), Mitch MacMillan (Alberni Valley Bulldogs). Defencemen: Mat Bodie (Powell River Kings), Jordan Heywood (Victoria Grizzlies). Goaltender: Frank Slubowski (Alberni Valley Bulldogs).

Interior Conference Starting Line-Up:

Forwards: Trevor Bailey (Westside Warriors), Denver Manderson (Penticton Vees), Mark Zengerle (Salmon Arm SilverBacks). Defencemen: Brendan Ellis (Westside Warriors), Wes McLeod (Prince George Spruce Kings). Goaltender: Sean Bonar (Penticton Vees).

The complete BCHL All-Star Team line-up includes 12 forwards, 7 defencemen and 3 goaltenders and includes at least on representative from each BCHL team.

Forwards: Trevor Bailey (Westside Warriors), Justin Bardarson (Williams Lake Timberwolves), Colton Beck (Langley Chiefs), Beau Bennett (Penticton Vees), Cody Bremner (Nanaimo Clippers), Dylan Herold (Burnaby Express), Trever Hertz (Quesnel Millionaires), Mike Krgovich (Surrey Eagles), Mitch MacMillan (Alberni Valley Bulldogs), Denver Manderson (Penticton Vees), Andrew Pettitt (Powell River Kings), Mark Zengerle (Salmon Arm SilverBacks).

Defencemen: Mat Bodie (Powell River Kings), Brendan Ellis (Westside Warriors), Jordan Heywood (Victoria Grizzlies), Wes McLeod (Prince George Spruce Kings), Graeme Strukoff (Trail Smoke Eaters), Shayne Taker (Cowichan Valley Capitals), Steve Tresierra (Merritt Centennials).

Goaltenders: Loic Boivin (Nanaimo Clippers), Sean Bonar (Penticton Vees), Frank Slubowski (Alberni Valley Bulldogs).

The league also announced its All-Star Game coaches, who are selected based on team winning percentage as of December 1st. Nolan Graham and Shane Kuss were selected from the Coastal Conference, while Mark Ferner and Fred Harbinson represent the Interior Conference.

Under this season's new All-Star Game format, Harbinson will serve as head coach for the BCHL All-Stars, assisted by Graham and Kuss. Ferner will lead the Vernon Vipers alongside the rest of the Vipers' coaching staff.

The 2010 BCHL All-Star Game takes place on Wednesday, January 13th at the Frank Crane Arena in Nanaimo. For more information on the game, including ticketing and additional All-Star Week events, visit nanaimoclippers.com.

EXPRESS RACE TO THE PLAYOFFS

Sunday's 4-1 loss to the Cowichan Valley Capitals was costly enough in a crucial 4 point game vs. the team the Express are directly battling with for the final playoff spot in the Coastal Conference.

The teams are tied with 21 points in the standings through 33 games, but Cowichan has the tie-breaker with a record of 10-22-0-1 compared to Burnaby's record of 9-21-0-3. Cowichan winning the last 2 head to head meetings doesn't help the Express cause as well.

With that in mind, I did a little number crunching to project where the two teams will finish in the standings. And the picture isn't pretty for the Express.

As we all know, the Express got off to a 5-0-0-1 start in the month of September for a total of 11 points in the first 6 games. Knowing what we know now, the record in the month of September was the exception rather than the rule. In that same time frame, the Caps record was 1-4-0-1 for 3 points in their first 6 games this season.

In the 27 games played since then, the Express have gone 4-21-0-2 for 10 points. In the same time, the Caps have gone 9-18-0-0 for 18 points.

So going back to the 6 game mark, I calculated both the Express and Capitals 54 game pace for the rest of the season.

Burnaby's 54 game pace since game 6 of the season is, 8-42-0-4 for 20 points. Cowichan's 54 game pace in the same time frame is 18-36-0-0 for 36 points.

Considering the pace that the two teams are on since game 6 of the season, that would see Cowichan Valley finish with a record of 19-40-0-1 for 39 points if you add their 54 game pace to the record they posted in their first 6 games.

Burnaby's final number will be 13-42-0-5 for 31 points if you add Burnaby's record after game 6 and the pace they're currently setting since their 5-0-0-1 start in September.

The math is simple, the pace the Express are on will see them miss the playoffs by 8 points considering where the two clubs are projected to finish the season if they maintain current pace in addition their record at the 6 game mark of the season.

If we use Cowichan Valley's magic number of a 39 point pace, the Express will have to post a 9-17-1 mark in their final 27 games to eclipse the Capitals in the standings and hit the 40 point mark. (Considering that Cowichan Valley maintains their tie-breaker advantage over Burnaby.)

And if Burnaby is to finish ahead of the Capitals for the final playoff spot, they will need to win the final head to head meeting between the two teams on Sunday February 14th at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

Looking at the schedule leading up to that matchup, Burnaby will be coming off a 2 day break after playing host to the Powell River Kings on Thursday February 11th.

For Cowichan Valley, they will be playing their 3rd game in less than 3 nights plus travel after playing at home Friday and Saturday leading up to the final matchup with Burnaby.

Considering what we know now, the Express have to pick up their pace.

LUCIC APPEARS ON VH1

Former Express Milan Lucic may be on the shelf with a high ankle sprain, but that doesn't mean he's still not getting around. He made an appearance this week at VH1's top 20 countdown. He talked about the upcoming Winter Classic January 1st between his Bruins and Flyers at Fenway Park.

Check out the video below courtesy of NHL.com

YIP VIDEO POSTED

It's a few days old, but I found a post game interview with Brandon Yip this past week with the Lake Erie Monsters of the AHL shortly following his professional debut.

Check out the video below in the Dekanich sent to ECHL posting to see the video.