Spartans end 2019 with perfect record after overtime victory over SFU

Trinity Western defenceman Elijah Vilio scored the overtime winner off an end-to-end rush to give the Spartans a 4-3 win over Simon Fraser University and send the Spartans into the Christmas break with a perfect 9-0-0-0 record.

Taking the puck behind his own net, Vilio raced down the left wing, beat the SFU defenceman wide, cut to the middle and tucked the puck under Clan netminder Andrew Henderson on TWU’s 50th shot of the night. The goal secured a comeback victory that saw the Spartans rally from a 3-2 third period deficit to force overtime after a goal from Elijah’s brother Kade Vilio.

Joseph Sylvain and Dustin Deugau also scored for TWU, while SFU’s Trevor Ayre tallied twice and Mitch Ledyard added a single.

The win puts a bow on TWU’s most dominant first semester in program history. The loss drops the Clan to 4-5-0-2.

“Our teams are pretty evenly matched and that was evident tonight," says TWU head coach Barret Kropf. "They were coming in off a couple of tough losses, so they came out pretty hungry. Even though we had that early lead, they had a lot of pushback. Then we just had to hit the reset button in the second intermission and we showed that we have the confidence in each other to just stick to our game plan. I also thought our speed was good and we were really disciplined tonight."

The Spartans opened scoring less than three minutes into the game, when Sylvain jumped on a rebound off a TWU two-on-one and banged it home from on top of the crease for his first of the year. TWU doubled its lead early in the second period, with Deugau snapping home a quick shot off the right wing on an odd-man rush.

Evan Last picked up an assist on the goal, which put him into the top 10 all-time amongst BCIHL scorers. Last added a helper on Vilio’s game-winner, as he now has 36 goals and 73 assists in 77 career games.

The Clan roared back, scoring three goals over the final 10:43 of the middle frame, sparked by Ayre’s first of the period, tipping home a point shot from Eric Callegari. Ayre scored his second on the power play at 10:49 of the period, jumping on a rebound in the slot and backhanding the puck in. Ledyard rounded out the second period scoring with 1:28 left in the second, taking a nifty pass from Arjun Badh from behind the net and whipping a shot from the slot past Mills.

Less than four minutes into the third period, the Spartans equalized with Vilio sneaking through a pair of SFU blueliners and slipping it in for his third goal of the season.

“Obviously with the 9-0 record, it’s our best start ever," says Kropf. "It’s one of those things where we have a lot of confidence and we have a lot of trust within the locker room. The break comes at a great time, so we can get healthy and hopefully we can continue with that confidence over the break and just fine-tune a few things.”

Dating back to the 2018-19 playoffs and regular season, the Spartans have won 14 straight BCIHL games. TWU’s longest single-season winning streak is 11 games, which the Spartans put together in 2017-18. TWU has outscored its opposition 49-24 this season, leading the BCIHL with +25 goal margin.

The Spartans are 3-0 against the Clan this season, winning 3-2 (Oct. 24) at home and 5-4 (Nov. 2) on the road. ·

TWU now enters the Christmas break before returning to BCIHL action Jan. 4-5 with a trip to Castlegar, B.C. to play Selkirk College.