Spartans shut down Eastern offence to win low scoring affair in Cheney

Jarrett Fontaine scored the game’s only goal and Lucas Mills earned a 35-save shutout as the Spartans beat Eastern Washington University by a 1-0 score on Saturday evening at the EWU Recreation Complex.

Fontaine scored a power play goal at 13:32 of the second period, with Jamey Kreller adding the assist, to give the Spartans all they would need to cap a two-win weekend. Both Fontaine and Kreller finished the weekend with six points, after Fontaine had three goals and two assists and Kreller had two goals and three assists, including the game-winner, in a 7-6 overtime victory over Selkirk College on Friday.

Mills is now 3-0 on the season and has allowed only one goal, which has him fashioning a .989 save percentage. TWU is now 10-3 on the season while EWU is still in search of its first win at 0-13.

The Spartans had 42 shots on goal and were one for three on the power play. EWU was zero for five with the man-advantage, including a five-minute power play when TWU’s Brett Wur was given a major penalty and game misconduct for checking to the head.

“The guys played really well tonight,” said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. “Full credit to Eastern Washington because they were really good and played a great team game. They forced us to match their effort and systems play. Lucas made some solid saves during some extended penalty kill time. In the end, we got four points out of the weekend, which is a great way to go into the break.”

The Spartans don’t play until Jan. 14 when they travel to the University of Victoria to resume their BCIHL regular season schedule.