To be the champs you have to beat the champs and the Surrey Eagles are not making it easy for contenders to their crown.
The defending B.C. Hockey League champion Eagles have matched the Langley Rivermen win for win over the first four games of their best-of-seven series, knotting the opening round set at two games apiece.
Langley finished the regular season with the best record in the BCHL while the Eagles were fourth in the league's Mainland Division.
Surrey leveled the series with a 7-5 win on Saturday night at South Surrey Arena, thanks to a stellar game from defenceman Philippe Johansson. The Quebec native scored three goals and set up two more to power the Eagles to the win. Surrey scored back-to-back power-play goals in both the second and third periods to put the Rivermen on their heels.
Kale Bennett scored a pair of goals for Surrey while Chase McMurphy and Matt Dawson each tallied once.
Langley took a 2-1 lead in the series with a 6-3 road win on Friday night. Trailing 1-0 after the first period, the Rivermen seized control of the contest with three goals in each of the final two frames.
Matt Ustaski led the Rivermen with two goals while Surrey replied with markers from Dawson, McMurphy and Nathan Renouf.
The series started Tuesday night in Langley where the host Rivermen rode the momentum of three unanswered secondperiod goals to a 4-2 win. Anthony Conti scored both goals for Surrey.
On Wednesday in Langley, McMurphy and Renouf scored goals less than two minutes apart midway through the third period to lead Surrey to a 4-3 comeback win at the Langley Events Centre. Langley never trailed in the contest until Renouf netted the go-ahead goal for Surrey midway through the third period.
Jonah Renouf and Danton Heinen also scored for Surrey while Eagles goaltender Bo Didur stopped 28 of 31 Rivermen shots to earn the win.
The two teams resumed action in the series last night in Langley. The series switched back to South Surrey Arena tonight (March 11) for Game 6 beginning at 7 p.m.