The Chilliwack Chiefs offence broke out in a big way Wednesday night, scoring seven in a home ice rout of the Langley Rivermen.
The Chiefs thumped their Mainland division rivals 7-3 led by Tommy Lee.
The rookie scored his first two BCHL goals as his team won their second straight game and improved their record to 4-2-0-0.
Two other Chiefs picked up their first BCHL goals. Eight minutes and 54 seconds into his Chilliwack debut, newly acquired D-man Carver Watson ventured deep into the Langley end and camped in the crease as Cole Poliziani snapped a shot from the right faceoff dot.
Rivermen keeper Nick Trenciansky made the stop but let the puck drop, and Watson steered it across the line.
Chilliwack gifted Langley a loooong five-on-three power play when Kale Kane (slashing) Connor McCarthy (hooking) and Colin Bernard (roughing) marched to the penalty box.
Bernard’s foul was a bad one. The rookie face-washed Zac Masson in a post-whistle scrum, exerting so much force the Langley forward fell on his butt.
But the penalty kill came up big. Goaltender Mark Sinclair boosted his save percentage with 15 first period stops, getting his team to the first break with a 1-0 lead even though they were out-played.
Chilliwack turned the territorial table in the middle frame.
Tommy Lee doubled the Chiefs lead just 2:21 in to period two with a power play goal. Watson earned another point, holding the puck in at the blueline, skating into the high slot and feeding a pass to Lee at the bottom of the right faceoff circle.
Lee one-timed it in for his first BCHL goal.
Jordan Kawaguchi put his crew up by three, scoring shorthanded at 10:59. Captain K picked a Langley pocket in the neutral zone, flew in on a breakaway and finished pretty with a forehand-backhand dangle.
The Rivermen got a late one. Ryan Barrow scored with six seconds on the clock, burying a Andrew Dumaresque centering pass behind Chilliwack netminder Mark Sinclair.
Two goals 37 seconds apart put this game on ice early in the final frame.
First it was Lee taking a cross ice pass from Anthony Vincent and beating Trenciansky with a five-hole bullet. Then it was Aaron O’Neill skating onto a saucer pass from Kale Kane and firing the puck top shelf over the netminder’s glove.
Trenciansky got the hook, replaced by Bo Didur.
After Dumaresque scored Langley’s second goal on a power play at 10:58, it was Chilliwack’s Kohen Olischefski sniping the sixth Chilliwack goal. It was a BIG oops for Rivermen defender John Schuldt, who coughed up the puck in front of his own net.
Olischefski popped the puck over Didur’s mitt for his third of the season.
Anthony Vincent wrapped up the scoring with 2:51 to go, slipping his first BCHL goal past Didur on a Chiefs power play.
The three stars were Lee (first), Watson (second) and Sinclair (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Linden Hora.
Announced attendance was 1,687.