It’s the third straight year that these two teams will meet in the BCHL playoffs, as the Bulldogs visit the Eagles in Surrey tonight to open their best of seven Coastal Conference quarter final series.
This is the first time since 2019-20 that the Bulldogs will open on the road, but far from their first time being an underdog.
The Bulldogs were the lower seed in the second round in 2022-2023, in winning in seven games in Surrey on their way to a Coastal Conference championship and their first Fred Page Cup appearance in franchise history.
After defeating the Coquitlam Express in a seven game thriller last season, the Bulldogs were again the underdogs in round two against the Chilliwack Chiefs, but pulled off an improbable four game sweep. They came a game short of defending their Conference title last season, as they forced a game seven again as underdogs and fell 3-2 in Surrey to have their season end.
It will be familiar territory, as the seventh seeded Bulldogs visit the second seeded Eagles for games one and two tonight and tomorrow.
The Eagles won the season series 3-1, with wins of 4-1 on December 20th and 3-2 on January 24th in Surrey. The Bulldogs responded with a resounding 8-2 win at the Dawg Pound on March 8th, before the Eagles won the most recent meeting by a 6-1 score on the penultimate night of the regular season.
The Eagles scored 15 goals to the Bulldogs 12 in the four head-to-head games. Surrey’s power play scored 22% of the time, while Alberni Valley scored at a 19.2% clip. On the penalty kill, the Bulldogs ended the regular season with a 74.5 kill rate, while Surrey’s was 79.5%. The Bulldogs scored 11 shorthanded goals, and conceded 3, while Surrey scored 8 times while allowing 4.
The Bulldogs ended the regular season on a four game losing streak, while the Eagles won their final two games. Neither side was on a roll in their final ten games, as the Bulldogs went 3-6-1-0 and the Eagles were 5-4-1-0.
Game time is 7:30.
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