The injury bug continues to plague the Coquitlam Express but that did not stop the club from putting a few notches in the win column this week.
With eight starters out of the lineup at one point, the club is relying on some new faces to get them through the next few weeks, including Cal Babych, son of former NHL veteran Dave Babych, who already has two goals in three games.
The week started off strong for the club, which managed a 3-2 victory over West Kelowna in front of fans at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex last Wednesday.
Babych was the first to get his team on the board with a marker early in the second period before captain Luca Leone made it 2-0 one minute later.
However, the visitors slowly crawled back into the game with a goal from Parm Dhaliwal, before Braiden Epp tied things up in the third period.
The game appeared to be headed for overtime when Express forward Blake Hayward potted his fourth of the season with 17 seconds left in the game to put away West Kelowna and notch Coquitlam’s fifth win of the season.
The Express were even more impressive on Friday when they took on Mainland Division leaders the Wenatchee Wild at home.
Looking to avenge a game earlier this month that saw the Wild shutout Coquitlam, the Express jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with markers from Alex Ambrosio, Sam Kozlowski and Babych.
The tide appeared to be turning against Coquitlam in the second period, when Wenatchee’s Slava Demin and Brendan Harris scored back-to-back goals 30 seconds apart. But Owen Stout quickly restored the lead with two goals for the Express, both assisted by Jake Brien.
However, the Wild were able to keep things close.
Matthew Baker scored for the visitors before the second intermission and Chris Jones made it 5-4 early in the third period. Despite closing the gap, Wenatchee could not find a way to put the tying goal past Express netminder Lawson Fenton, who turned away 43 of the 47 shots he faced.
By Sunday, Coquitlam’s shooters appeared to be running out of gas when they hosted the Salmon Arm Silverbacks for an afternoon game at Poirier.
Despite a solid performance from goalie Reid Cooper, the Express were unable to give him any goal support and the team went down 3-0 to the visitors.
Coquitlam, which is in fourth place in the Mainland Division with a 6-10-0-1 record, will be hitting the road this weekend for back-to-back games against Prince George before heading to Washington State next weekend for matches against Wenatchee.
The next home game for the Express is against Prince George on Nov. 11 at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. For more information go to www.coquitlamexpress.ca.
@gmckennaTC
