Surrey, BC ~ The Victoria Grizzlies got goals from seven different scorers on Sunday evening to defeat the Surrey Eagles 8-5 at the South Surrey Arena for their first win of the 2025-26 season.
It was all Grizzlies in the first period, getting tallies from Carter Hynes (1), Hunter Ashton (1), Niklas Karjalainen (1), Sam Rousseau (2) & Rich Rucireto (1) to lead the game 5-1 after twenty minutes. Surrey, who was fresh off a 8-0 loss on opening night, was having a horror start to their evening.
The Eagles, to their credit, came out with more intent in the second period and got a goal from Lucas Busch at 4:37 to pull within three. They would not be able to find the goal during a five minute major power play and full two minute five-on-three.
In the third period, Surrey struck just seven seconds into the period before Max Silver’s first of the year for Victoria restored a three goal lead at 1:59.
Surrey refused to go away to their credit and scored twice in four minutes to make it a 6-5 game and make some Grizzlies faithful sweat. Landon Mackie (1) would give the visitors some breathing room at 13:29 before Sam Rousseau (3) closed out the scoring with an empty netter with just over a minute remaining in the game.
Victoria outshot Surrey 37-30 on the evening and Carter Capton made 25 saves on 30 shots in the Grizzly crease. Aden Gariepy lasted just 18 minutes, giving up on five on 17 shots while Nathan Claydon made 17 saves on 19 shots in just over 40 minutes of relief.
Victoria is back in action on Friday and Saturday night this coming weekend, traveling to the Hap Parker Arena in Powell River for a two game set.
