EWU shells Victoria to pick up first regular season victory on home ice

New year, new Eagles?

That was certainly the case on Friday night in Cheney, where Eastern Washington kicked off the 2017 portion of their BCIHL regular season schedule with a dominating 8-0 win over the University of Victoria. 

The game marked a stark contrast to the first two-plus months of an Eagles regular season that saw the team start with 13 consecutive losses while being outscored 81-22.

But the EWU offence punished the Vikes on Friday, with John Vant opening the scoring just 2:58 in before Devan Beck and Brett Mathews added singles before intermission. And they kept coming in the middle frame as a pair of power-play markers and another Beck tally doubled the lead to 6-0. Trevor Zakrajsek and Hayden Boring capped the scoring in the third.

In goal, Austin Brihn turned aside all 23 shots he faced to pick up his first BCIHL shutout. Meanwhile, Vikes starter Michael Fredrick gave way to Zack Wear following the Eagles' fifth goal. Wear made 11 saves on 14 shots in the remaining 25 minutes of action.

Tanner Hawes led the way for EWU with three assists, while six other Eagles skaters recorded multi-point games.

Eastern will look to build on the momentum from their first win and perhaps make a late charge at a playoff birth when they travel to Vancouver Island next weekend for a rematch in a two-game series against the Vikes.