The Cowichan Valley Capitals are facing elimination after dropping Game 4 of the best-of seven opening round of their BCHL playoff series against the league champion Surrey Eagles Wednesday, April 10.
Surrey got the first thjree goals before a power-play marker from Andrej Kovacevic got Cowichan on the board midway through the second period.
Matthew Swanson pulled the Capitals to within one with a power-play goal early in the third but Surrey put it away at the 11-minute mark and the visitors went on to win 4-2 and take a 3-1 series lead.
The Cowichan Valley Capitals had forced a fifth game in the series the night before. Down two games to none after a trip over to Surrey’s home rink, the Capitals welcomed the Eagles to the Cowichan Arena on Tuesday, April 9 for Game 3.
Forward Gavin Giesbrecht had himself a night for the home team, scoring a hat-trick en route to Cowichan’s 5-3 victory at The Stick.
Giesbrecht opened the scoring with two first-period goals in a four-minute span, then capped off the hatty with an empty netter late in the third.
Luke Santilli and Darius Bachler scored in the second period. Cowichan never trailed in the game and goalie Aiden Fischer got the win, stopping 29 of 32 shots faced.
In Game 1, the Eagles bested the Caps by a 4-2 score in the first of two games at South Surrey Arena.
Down by two after two, Santilli stepped up with a solid individual effort, carrying the puck into the offensive zone from his own red line before beating a defender and then the Surrey goalie to make it a 2-1 game.
Kovacevic got a huge goal with just over 2:11 left to play, slotting the rebound of a Brady Yakesh shot into a wide open net to tie the score at two goals each.
A turnover in Cowichan’s defensive zone just seconds after play resumed, however, resulted in a scrambling Eagles goal, putting them up 3-2 with 2:06 to play. Cowichan peppered Surrey’s goalie with shots before the Eagles scored an empty netter as time wound down to win the opening game 4-2.
The following night, the Game 2 was not as close, with Surrey winning 5-0 despite Cowichan out-shooting them 43-34.
The penalty kill proved to be a problem for the Caps as four of the five goals they conceded came off of Surrey power plays.
The puck drops at 7:15 p.m. for Game 5 on Friday, April 12 at South Surrey Arena.
Should it prove necessary, Game 6 is set for the Cowichan Arena the following night at 7 p.m.