SFU Men’s Hockey returns home Saturday night to take on the Eastern Washington Eagles for the third time this season.

The weekend prior, SFU split a two-game road trip, defeating the Eagles in their second match-up 3-2 on Friday in Cheney, WA, however, the next night, SFU were shutout 5-0 by the reigning BCIHL champions, the Selkirk College Saints.

“It was a tale of two games,” said head coach Mark Coletta.

Mike Sandor, Brandon Tidy, and Jesse Mysiorek all tallied goals against Eastern Washington in Friday’s effort. Goaltenders Jordan Liem and Lyndon Stanwood split the games.

With Friday’s victory against the Eagles, the season series is now split at 1-1. SFU lost the home opener to Eastern Washington 5-3, despite goals from Tidy and Tyler Basham. Last season, SFU won the season series against the Eagles 3-2.

Eastern Washington currently sits in last in the BCIHL with a 2-4-0 record across six games, but it’s important to not take them lightly.

“They’re a good team, they’re a well rounded team that’s definitely much improved over last year, so I don’t think they should creep up and surprise anybody,” said Coletta of the Eastern Washington team. “We’ve got to utilize our cycle, our team speed down below the hashmarks, and generate our offence off our cycle like we did the other night.

“I think any time you play a team a couple times in a week, it’s going to get rough, and we have to be ready for the task.”

One of the keys of the game for SFU will be shutting down Beau Walker. Last season, he was the BCIHL scoring leader, and this year, he’s picked up right where he left off — with nine goals and five assists in six games. Against SFU, he’s had five goals this season.

“He’s really good offensively, he’s fast, he’s shifty, he gets in the good spots,” said Coletta. “[We can’t] let him wind up and wheel around the ice like he likes to do.”

Second year forward Tyler Basham leads SFU in points with seven, three of them goals, while fifth year veteran Jono Ceci is second in points with six points, four of them happened in SFU’s last home game. Ceci — who has 153 BCIHL points — is now only four points off of the BCIHL all-time scoring record held by Robert Vos, who played for UFV and Trinity Western, which sits at 157 points.

First year NCAA transfer Jaret Babych leads the team in goals with four in five games played — and two two-goal nights.

Founded in 2005, the team is celebrating its tenth anniversary throughout this season with a variety of special events including hosting the BCIHL Showcase in January.

Puck drop is 7 pm at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre. All SFU students get in free with student ID. In honour of Remembrance Day, all former and current military personnel will receive free entry.