As they head into the final quarter of their regular season, the Langley Rivermen are starting to pick up victories.

Langley's B.C. Hockey League squad snapped a six-game winless skid on Jan. 21 with a 5-4 win over the visiting Coquitlam Express.

Since then, the 'Men have won two of three outings, including back-to-back home-ice victories at the Langley Events Centre over the weekend. They paddled the Victoria Grizzlies 13-2 Saturday night before edging the Trail Smoke Eaters 5-4 Sunday afternoon.

"We definitely took advantage of Victoria," Rivermen head coach Steve O'Rourke said. "They had played two nights in a row with a short lineup. And there were more bad goals than good goals [allowed] on their part. Their goaltender wasn't great, and we were fortunate and kind of got on a roll."

O'Rourke sat some of his top point producers near the end of Saturday's game.

At the same time, he stressed to his players that, no matter what the score, to continue their good habits of hard forechecking and throwing pucks on net.

With 15 games to go in their regular season, the Rivermen own a 16-25-1-3 record and sit alone in seventh in the BCHL's eight-team Coastal Conference, three points up on the last-place Alberni Valley Bulldogs and a point back of sixth-place Victoria.

Rivermen 5, Trail Smoke Eaters 4

The 'Men picked up their second win in as many days after clipping the Smoke Eaters Sunday afternoon.

It was the first and only meeting of the season between the two non-conference teams.

The Smokies were finishing off their Lower Mainland road swing and were playing their third game in two-and-a-half days.

Meanwhile, the Rivermen were playing the second of back-to-back contests on home ice.

O'Rourke said that while Sunday's game wasn't the best showing from the Rivermen, it wasn't bad.

"We didn't have a great first period, came out and played a better second, and managed the third," he said. "It wasn't perfect."

The Rivermen got out to a fast start after Austin Plevy opened the scoring on a beautiful breakaway move, just 1:29 into the first period.

That was all for the home team however, as the Smoke Eaters played a solid first 20 minutes, getting back-to-back goals to take a 2-1 lead after the first frame.

Reigning BCHL player of the week Erik Cooper made it 3-1 Smoke Eaters with a goal off the rush just 44 seconds into the second period.

The Rivermen received a huge boost courtesy of a goal from Ben Greiner, whose shot deflected off a Trail defencemen's skate and into the back of the net to cut Langley's deficit to one goal.

After sustained pressure from the Rivermen, Mike Tebbutt finished off a pretty pass from Darnell Dyck for his 21st of the season, to even the score.

As Tebbutt's goal was being announced, the 'Men got their lead back with a goal off the stick of Thomas Nitsche, who banged home his own rebound to make it 4-3 for the locals.

Fatigue began to settle in for both teams in the final period of play, but that didn't stop the Rivermen's Evan Campbell from putting away a powerplay tally at the 11:16 mark to up the home team's lead.

Luke Bertolucci would make it interesting for the Smokies with a late goal, but was not enough as the final buzzer sounded.

Rivermen goaltender James Barr faced 37 shots on the afternoon and picked up the victory, while Smoke Eaters' netminder Lyndon Stanwood saw 31 pucks and was charged with the loss.

The Rivermen's trio of Mario Puskarich, Evan Campbell, and Ben Greiner combined for five points in the win and was arguably the best line on the ice.

The Rivermen have scored 18 goals in their past two games and have now won their last two match-ups.

Rivermen 13, Victoria Grizzlies 2

It is not often you see 13 goals scored combined in a hockey game, let alone for one team.

The Rivermen had the explosion of a lifetime on Saturday night against the Grizzlies in a decisive romp at the Langley Events Centre.

Langley scored early and often in the most lopsided win in the BCHL season.

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies' epic struggles continue. They suffered their ninth straight loss and were coming off a 9-2 whipping at the hands of the Coquitlam Express the previous night.

The fans didn't have to wait for long to see the game's first goal. Seventeen seconds after the opening puck drop, Puskarich ripped a snap shot past Victoria goalie Taylor Pears to make it 1-0.

After Langley's Peter McMullen made it 2-0, the Grizzlies responded with back-to-back tallies to even up the score just after the 10 minute mark.

Campbell would get the lead right back in the Rivermen's favour with a late powerplay goal to take the wind out of the Grizzlies' sails.

In the second period, it got really ugly for the visitors. Seven straight goals hit the back of the Victoria net by the time the period was all said and done.

Puskarich scored twice to cap off the hat trick before the game had reached its midway point.

Derek Sutliffe also had a pair of goals with Tebbutt, Jackson Playfair, and Dyck getting in on the act to put the game out of reach.

The Sutliffe show continued in the final period. He scored twice more, including one on a perfectly executed penalty shot, to make it four markers on the night.

His linemate, Tebbutt, was the final goal-scorer in the game to make it 13-2.

It was a game that not only the Rivermen players will soon not forget, but the 1,334 fans who attended the game as well.

The Sutliffe-Tebbutt-Dyck line combined for 17 points, with seven of those coming from Sutliffe who enjoyed a career game with four goals and three assists and was named the game's first star.

Langley goaltender Jim Kruger faced 31 shots as he picked up the victory.

Only four Rivermen skaters were without a point when 60 minutes elapsed.

Ironically, the Grizzlies stemmed the bleeding somewhat Sunday at South Surrey Arena, after they clawed to a 4-4 tie with the host Surrey Eagles, who stand second in the Coastal Conference with a solid 25-10-2-6 mark.

The Rivermen are 18 points back of Coquitlam, which holds the fourth and final playoff spot in the Coastal Conference.

Standings aside, at this time of the year, it's all about consistency, O'Rourke said.

"Right now we're 3-1 on our home stand, but those are games in the standings we should win," he said, speaking about the weekend victories over Victoria and Trail (a team that has a league-worst 9-29-1-4 record). "We want to continue to get better and grow our confidence."

The Rivermen will look to extend their win streak to three tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 1) when they host Surrey at the Langley Events Centre. Opening faceoff is 7 p.m.

Tickets are available at the LEC box-office on game night.

sports@langleyadvance.com