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CHIEFS PUSH EAGLES TO THE BRINK

Brett Willits scored two goals and added one assist and Mathieu Caron notched his second shutout of the series stopping all 28 shots faced as the Chilliwack Chiefs beat the Surrey Eagles 3-0 Thursday night at the Chilliwack Coliseum. Chilliwack now leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.

Willits was an absolute warrior in this game. He and his linemates Ethan Bowen and Kyle Penney provided all the offense the team needed in game five as they combined for seven points in the game. The 20-year old centre was forced to leave the game late in the second period after taking a Jack Agnew shot to the face that required some repair work. No one knew if Willits would return to the game but he did in the third period and continued to press the play earning the first star on this night.

Chilliwack opened the scoring for the fourth time in the series when Willits scored his first of the post-season at the 7:58 mark of the first period turning a firing a puck past Surrey goaltender Tommy Scarfone.

No goals were scored in the middle period despite a couple of big time moments in the frame for Chilliwack. In the dying moments of a Chiefs penalty kill, Willits got in behind the Eagles defense and was hauled down going to the front of the goal. The referee immediately signalled to centre ice for a penalty shot. Willits went in on Scarfone and elected to shoot but was stopped to keep the game at 1-0. Then later in the period, Peter Reynolds grabbed a loose puck inside the Chilliwack zone and turned on the jets for a clear cut breakaway down the ice but his chip shot over the right should of the Eagles netminder went over the net and the game still remained at a 1-0 score through forty minutes of play.

Penney doubled the Chiefs lead at the 12:44 mark of the third period with his third goal of the series. Then just over three minutes after that Willits put the game on ice with this second of the night.

Chilliwack did not get a power-play opportunity in the game. Surrey went 0-for-4 on the man-advantage. The Chiefs outshot the Eagles 37-28 in the game. Surrey has not scored a goal on Caron under the lights the Chilliwack Coliseum since the midway mark of game one of the series, a span of 129 minutes and 44 seconds.

Game six is in Surrey Saturday night where the Chiefs will try and punch their ticket into round number two and face the Coquitlam Express. Game time is 7:00pm.

You can catch all the play-by-play action with Vanni De Bartolo and Tyler Garrah on Produce Gone Wild Chiefs Playoff Hockey starting with the pre-game show at 6:35pm.

 Written by: Vanni De Bartolo, Chiefs Play-by-Play broadcaster