The series may be even, but there's no doubt a few scores left to be settled after Game 2 of the Surrey Eagles' best-of-seven grudge match against the rival Langley Chiefs.
After losing the series opener Monday night, the Eagles rebounded to knot the series 1-1 with a 6-1 thumping of the Chiefs Tuesday at South Surrey Arena, but third-period fisticuffs managed to overshadow what was an otherwise convincing victory.
In the third period alone, the two B.C. Hockey League clubs – who have had a heated divisional rivalry dating back to the Chiefs' days in Chilliwack – combined for 51 minutes in penalties, eight 10-minute misconducts and five game misconducts.
In total – including misconducts – the two clubs combined for 269 penalty minutes over three periods. By the final horn, in fact, there were nearly as many coaches and trainers on each bench as they were players.
Eight minutes into the final period, with Surrey up 5-1, Eagles captain Tyler Morley was ejected for a hit-from-behind, but the rough stuff really didn't get going until the 12-minute mark, when Eagles' Beau Orser and Langley's Brandon Scholten were each assessed misconducts, which was followed by a scrap between Surrey's leading goal-scorer Richard Vanderhoek and Chiefs forward Darnell Dyck, who was also tossed from the game.
From there, and with the game out of reach for the visiting Chiefs, it got ugly; over the next four minutes, misconducts were given to Surrey's Colton Mackie and Josh Monk, and Chiefs' Mike Tebbutt, Josh Myers, Tyler Miller, Tim Daly and Brandon Thompson.
At the 20-minute mark, Orser also took a four-minute spearing penalty.
Before the third period brouhaha began, Surrey – in front of 800-plus fans at South Surrey Arena – managed to run up the score, thanks in large part to a power play that clicked at a three-for-nine clip.
The Eagles led 3-0 after the opening period on goals from Mackie, Morley and Robert Lindores, whose power-play marker was his second in as many games.
In the middle stanza, Scott Holm and Daniel Gentzler – who tipped in a shot during an Eagles' power play – ran the score up to 5-0 before Langley's Austin Plevy cut the lead to 5-1.
Eagles' Hayden Trupp scored the team's third power-play goal of the contest 16:24 into the third period to round out the scoring.
Brad McGowan returned to the top of the BCHL playoff scoring table with a three-assist effort, giving him 14 points in six games.
Eagles goalie Karel St. Laurent stopped 26 shots to earn his fifth victory of the playoffs, while Langley's starting netminder Wyatt Galley was chased from the game after 40 minutes, and was replaced by backup Cole Huggins. In total, Surrey peppered the Chiefs' net with 48 shots.
Game 3 will go Thursday at the Langley Events Centre.