The fans had just settled into their seats for the second period when Francis Boie’s goal triggered a shower of stuffed animals.
After a scoreless first period, Boie got the home side Langley Rivermen on the board on Teddy Bear Toss night on Sunday afternoon at the George Preston Recreation Centre.
Boie’s goal was the first of six for the Rivermen as the junior A hockey club handled the visiting Coquitlam Express 6-1 in BCHL action.
The Rivermen also had a pair of games in Prince George on Thursday and Friday, a 5-3 loss to the Spruce Kings and a 2-1 double overtime victory, which gives Langley a record of 13-14-3-2 and their 31 points have them just three back of Prince George for third place in the Mainland Division.
Considering the fact they made the long trip to Prince George and back and played three games in four days, Rivermen associate head coach Chris Shaw was pleased his team picked up four of possible points.
“Two of three, going up to PG — (which) is not the easiest place to play — we are pretty happy with everything,” he said on Monday.
“I think we were a little disappointed we dropped the first one. We played well enough to win but we made three kind of mental errors and gave them some pretty easy goals there.”
In Sunday’s victory over the Express, Brendan Budy paced the attack with a goal and three assists
while Andrew Dumaresque had a goal and two helpers and Ryan Barrow chipped in three assists.
Boie, Cooper Leitch, John Schuldt and Max Kaufman had the other Rivermen goals.
Bo Didur stopped 23 shots for the victory.
In Friday’s victory, McKay Flanagan forced overtime with a third-period goal and Zac Masson scored the winner in double overtime. Didur made 25 saves for the win.
“We were pushing the pace for most of the game; their goalie was playing really well and we stuck to the game plan,” Shaw said.
It was just the Rivermen’s second victory in seven overtime games this season.
“It was nice to have a bounce go our way finally,” the coach added.
In Thursday’s loss, the Rivermen were ahead 3-2 early in the third but surrendered three goals in five minutes to lose 5-3.
Angus Crookshank, Satchel Clendenin and Dumaresque had the Rivermen goals.
Langley is back in action with a pair of midweek games, Tuesday (Dec. 13) and Wednesday (Dec. 14) against Merritt and Chilliwack, respectively. Both games are the Preston Centre with puck drop at 7:15 p.m. These are the team’s last home games until January.
They close out the pre-holiday break schedule with a game in Merritt on Saturday (Dec. 17).