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One week ahead of Christmas, the Squamish Eagles juvenile hockey team gave fans an early Christmas present on Dec. 18.
The Eagles continued its solid start to the season, closing off its 2014 home schedule with a win 6-4 win over the Port Coquitlam Pirates at Brennan Park Arena.
The back and forth game saw the Pirates score at 8:10 of the first period on the power play, but the Eagles replied with a goal of their own with the man advantage when Brendan Hopkins tied the game.听
Terry Clark and Graham Raschella drew the helpers, but the lead was short lived as the Pirates regained the lead with 54 seconds left in the first period.
Hopkins tied the game up again just 13 seconds into the second period with assists from Clark and Mitchell Hayden, and Squamish grabbed the lead when Karmen Mooney scored the go-ahead goal with helpers from Hopkins and Hayden.
The Pirates drew even minutes later, but Clark snagged the lead back with 7:04 remaining in the second after being set up by Isshin Chiyasu and Ryan Milia. The Eagles then made the Pirates pay for a five-minute major penalty when Nick Lowe converted on the power play with an assist from Daniel Munn to give the Eagles a 5-3 lead after two periods.
Port Coquitlam added another power play goal in the third period but Squamish sealed the win when Lowe scored an empty netter.听
Hopkins and Clark were the Eagles top scorers with four points apiece.
The win improved the Eagles record to eight wins and three losses on the season and head coach Matthew Carrat said it was a nice win for the club.
鈥淚t was a good bounce back win for us,鈥� he said, noting they lost a game to the top team earlier in the week.听
鈥淧oco is the third place team and we鈥檙e second so this was a huge win for us.鈥�
Carrat said he likes what he鈥檚 seen from the team so far.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going really good,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of unity and heart on this team and we鈥檝e really come together as a team. We鈥檝e had a few returning players, but it鈥檚 really like a brotherhood with our guys.鈥�
The Eagles are off for the rest of the holiday season but return to Brennan Park Arena for the regular Saturday night home game slot starting on Jan. 10.听
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