Spartans look to wrap up regular season with win vs. University of Victoria

Trinity Western University will wrap up the 2014/15 regular season when they host the University of Victoria this Friday evening at the Langley Sportsplex.

The Spartans are looking to snap its only three-game losing streak of the season as they play the very same Vikes side who started TWU’s skid with a 5-4 win on Feb. 7. TWU is 4-3-0-0 against Victoria this season.

Friday’s game is at 7 p.m. Due to technical difficulties at the Langley Sportsplex, the game will not be broadcast online.

Friday’s game will be the Spartans final tune-up contest before the playoffs begin next weekend. TWU has been assured of a playoff spot for more than a month and locked up first place three weeks ago. However, since securing top spot, TWU has lost three straight and are looking for a positive result to turn the tides against an opponent, in Victoria, that the Spartans could well play in the opening round of the playoffs.

Despite their current three-game slide, for the Spartans, it truly has been a season to remember. Prior to this year, the Spartans had never finished higher than third in the regular season standings. This year, while scoring 100 goals in their first 23 games, TWU has largely been the cream of the crop in the BCIHL.

While a championship is obviously the end goal, the Spartans first regular season title is certainly something to be celebrated.

The offensive duo of Cody Fidgett and PJ Buys has been something that was previously unseen at TWU. The Spartans have had impressive solo performances – the likes of JP Villeneuve (2013-14) and Brandon Long (2011-12) come to mind – but they have never had two scorers amongst the league’s top 10, let alone the top three.

Entering the weekend, Fidgett is second in league scoring with 24 goals and 16 assists while Buys is tied for third with 13 goals and 22 assists. All told, the tandem has combined for 37 per cent of the Spartans goals this season.

There’s no doubt that much of the Spartans success this year can be directly attributed to the play of goalie Silas Matthys. And with one more win this season, Matthys can equal the all-time BCIHL record for wins in a season.

With 14 wins so far this year, a victory on Friday would equal Simon Fraser’s Justin Mulholland’s mark of 15 wins, which he set in 2009-10. However, win or lose, Matthys has the Goalie of the Year award all but locked up as he currently has a .930 save percentage (1st in the BCIHL) and a 2.50 goals against average (2nd in the BCIHL).

Unlike the Spartans, the Vikes comes into this Friday’s tilt with plenty still to play for and with room to move up in the BCIHL standings. Victoria enters the weekend one point behind third-place Simon Fraser with the Vikes having two games left on their schedule and the Clan with just one game remaining.

A third place finish would result in a trip to Selkirk for the first round of the playoffs while a fourth place finish would set up a series with TWU.

The Vikes are hoping this is a bounce back type of weekend. Last weekend, Victoria hosted Selkirk in a two-game series and got trounced in back-to-back contests, falling 7-1 and 6-2.

The Vikes will look to turn things around this weekend as they head into the playoffs. The last time TWU and Victoria played, the Vikes won 5-4.

The Vikes don’t have a player amongst the top five in league-scoring, but instead have found success thanks to four players with 10 or more goals. Forward Adam Klein leads the way with 15 markers and after that, it’s Shawn Mueller with 13 and Evan Warner and Dylan Hykawy with 10 each. The group of four have score nearly 56 per cent of Victoria’s goals and will certainly be relied upon for offence this Friday.

The Vikes are precisely middle of the road when it comes to both their penalty kill and power play. Through 22 games, Victoria’s penalty kill is third in the BCIHL at 82.3 per cent, while its power play is also third in the five-team league at 20.2 per cent.

However, on the road, Victoria is second in the league in both categories. The Vikes 83.7 per cent road penalty killing is second only to TWU and its 20.0 per cent power play trails only Selkirk.