The Cup is coming to Surrey.
Surrey Eagles have won the British Columbia Hockey League’s Fred Page Cup, after winning 3-1 vs. Penticton Vees – winner of the BCHL’s cup in 2022 and 2023 – Sunday (May 26) in Penticton.
That Championship Feeling 🏆
— BCHL (@BCHockeyLeague) May 27, 2024
🎙 @_JoeyPitt #BCHLPlayoffs | @SurreyEagles pic.twitter.com/bGzeAW4aGg
Eagles denied the Interior conference team a three-peat, with league top-scorer and MVP Caden Cranston, Liam Tanner and Jagjeevan Phangura each scoring one goal per period. Top BCHL netminder Ajeet Gundarah made 35 of 36 saves for the win.
Although the Vees’ Connor MacPherson scored with less than three minutes left in the third, it wasn’t enough to defeat the South Surrey-based team on their hard-fought quest for the cup – the first Lower Mainland-based team to win the Fred Page Cup since Coquitlam Express in 2014.
READ MORE: Surrey Eagles win 6 of 9 BCHL year-end awards heading into Round 3 playoffs
The Cam Keith-coached Eagles travelled to Penticton for Game 6 after winning Game 5 Friday (May 24) on home ice at The Nest in South Surrey, where Gundarah recorded his second shutout of the BCHL finals as the Eagles blanked the Penticton Vees 4-0, scoring four goals on 16 shots for the win.
In the BCHL’s Alberta championship final, Brooks Bandits defeated Sherwood Park Crusaders.
Surrey Eagles will now travel to Alberta to face the Bandits in the Rocky Mountain Challenge, a best-of-three season-ending series, from May 31 to June 2. All Rocky Mountain Challenge games will be played at Centennial Regional Arena in Brooks.
Surrey Eagles had an outstanding regular season, posting league-leading stats of 44-8-2 that put the talented South Surrey team at the top of the league in points, coaching, scoring and goaltending, earning six of the BCHL’s nine year-end trophies.
– with files from Tom Zillich, Logan Lockhart