Eagles Win WCC

The Surrey Eagles were crowned champions of the inaugural Western Canada Cup on Saturday night after a 4-1 win over the Brooks Bandits in the tournament final. Forward Drew Best scored the winning goal while goaltender Michael Santaguida made 40 saves for the victory.

The Birds got the opening goal just before the midway mark of the first period off a broken play when Trevor Cameron carried the puck into the attacking zone and took a heavy hit from Taylor Makin, but the loose puck ended up on the stick of Jordan Klimek who skated into the slot and beat Brooks goaltender Michael Fredrick with a hard wrister into the top right corner of the net. Stefan Burzan nearly gave Surrey a 2-0 lead later in the period when he was sprung in on a breakaway but just missed wide of the left post after a nice deke.

Drew Best extended Surrey's lead early in the second on the power play after a great heads up play by Santaguida to send a stretch pass to Brady Shaw at the attacking blue line while the Bandits were in the middle of a line change. Shaw received the pass and fed into the slot for a streaking Best who wired a backhander in under the crossbar. Before the period was out, the Eagles went ahead by three after a pretty move by Cameron to get around a Bandits defender. Cameron then found Demico Hannoun at the side of the goal, and the North Delta native poked the puck across the goal line for his first of the tournament.

Craig Wyszomirski scored Surrey's fourth goal less than five minutes into the third when his hard slap shot from the left point deflected off a stick and found the back of the net. Cam Maclise countered for the Bandits with a power play marker a few minutes later, but the Eagles held on the rest of the way to close out the victory and book their ticket to the Royal Bank Cup.

The Surrey power play went 1-for-3 while Brooks was 1-for-7 on the man advantage. The Bandits out shot the Eagles 41-30.

The Eagles now advance to the RBC for the first time since 1998 when the team won the national championship. Surrey's first game of tournament will go on Sunday, May 12th in Summerside, PEI.

Surrey Player of the Game: Demico Hannoun

Brooks Player of the Game: Cam Maclise

My 3 Stars:
1. Trevor Cameron - Surrey
2. Demico Hannoun - Surrey
3. Michael Santaguida - Surrey