MULCAHY GETS OT WINNER, EAGLES COME BACK TO BEAT WESTERN CAPITALS

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. – Brett Mulcahy scored the game-winner 8:43 into overtime to help the Surrey Eagles erase a two-goal deficit in the final 14 minutes and beat the Summerside Western Capitals 5-4 Monday night at the 2013 RBC Cup.

It was the first meeting between the teams since the Western Capitals beat Surrey 4-3 in the championship game of the 1997 Royal Bank Cup in Summerside. The teams also went to overtime in their preliminary round match-up 16 years ago; the Eagles won that one too, 3-2.

Adam Tambellini scored twice for Surrey (2-0), while Trevor Cameron and Devon Toews added one goal each as the Eagles joined the Brooks Bandits as the only undefeated teams left at Canada’s National Junior A Championship.

Tambellini added two assists for a four-point night, while Toews and Michael Stenerson had two helpers apiece. Cameron also had multiple points, finishing with a goal and an assist.

Christopher Caissy had two goals to lead the offence for Summerside (1-1), which also got goals from JP Harvey and Mitchell Maynard. The Western Capitals played overtime for the fifth time in four appearances at the RBC Cup; they dropped to 3-2 with the loss.

Three Summerside skaters contributed three points each to the offensive effort – Caissy had two goals and an assist, Harvey finished with a goal and two helpers and Danny Chiasson chipped in with three assists.

The Western Capitals were the first to hit the scoreboard when Caissy danced around a Surrey defenceman and slipped the puck through Eagles netminder Michael Santaguida, but Tambellini pulled the West Region champions even just less than seven minutes later on a power play.

Harvey restored the Summerside lead at 7:51 of the second period, tipping in a Caissy point shot with the man advantage, but Cameron went up and over the glove of Kevin Bailie 1:56 later to make it 2-2.

The tie would be short lived, however, as Maynard converted on a Western Capitals power play at 12:55, and Caissy’s second of the game gave the host side the first two-goal lead at 4-2 heading to the intermission.

The Eagles controlled play in the third period, outshooting Summerside 10-4, and Toews got the comeback started at 6:45, snapping a shot over Bailie’s blocker, before Tambellini batted the puck out of mid-air and past the Western Capitals’ netminder with 4:25 left.

Both teams came out firing in overtime, combining for 16 shots in almost nine minutes, before Mulcahy wired a shot just underneath the crossbar, spoiling the party for the pro-Summerside crowd of 2,303 at CUP.

Special teams were key for both teams – Surrey finished 2-for-3 with the man advantage, while Summerside scored twice in four opportunities.

Santaguida got the win in the Eagles’ net, making 33 saves. His Western Capitals counterpart, Bailie, was terrific in a losing cause, stopping 42 of 47 shots.

Summerside looks to bounce back Tuesday night in another tough match-up, facing Brooks (7:30 p.m. AT), while Surrey won’t see the ice again until Wednesday afternoon, when it takes on the Minnesota Wilderness (3 p.m. AT).