Spartans look to take step in locking up first place with visit from EWU

Trinity Western University has clinched a playoff spot, but now the Spartans are aiming to lock down first place in the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League and a win this Friday against Eastern Washington would put TWU one victory away from making program history.

The Spartans have never finished higher than third in the BCIHL standings. Last year’s third place finish in the regular season marked a TWU best.

TWU is 3-0 against EWU this year and has outscored the Eagles 13-4. Friday's game is set for a 7:00 PM faceoff and will be broadcast live at www.bcihl.fasthockey.com.

With a win this Friday against Eastern Washington, the Spartans will have gone three months without a regulation loss. The last time TWU suffered a 60-minute loss was Oct. 31 against Victoria. Since then, the Spartans have gone 9-0-0-1 and are currently riding a six-game winning streak.

Last weekend exemplified exactly why the Spartans have had so much success this weekend: team depth. After a 5-3 win over Simon Fraser on Thursday, coach Barret Kropf rolled out a pre-determined lineup Friday that featured four different players on the roster. The subsequent result was a 5-1 win over the second place Victoria Vikes.

The Spartans have had 30 different players dress this year and 26 of them have played at least three games.

Spartans goalie Silas Matthys has been nothing short of dominant night in and night out and his numbers this year are far and away the best in the BCIHL. With his 2.32 goals against average, Matthys is one of just two goalies in the league with a GAA below 3.00. His .935 save percentage also has him as one of just two netminders at .900 or above. Selkirk’s James Prigione is second in both categories at 2.52 and .900.

Much has been made about the Spartans power play and its impressive success this year – it’s currently working at 29.0 per cent – but TWU’s penalty killing is now also first in the BCIHL. The Spartans penalty kill is working at 84.9 per cent but most recently has been all but unbeatable. Over TWU’s last five games, the Spartans have killed off 29 of 31 power plays for a rate of 93.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Eagles enter this weekend in desperate need of a win. With six games to play, Eastern Washington sits six points behind Simon Fraser for the fourth and final playoff position. The Eagles have dug themselves a deep hole and it won’t be easy to recover, but a win over first place TWU might just be the spark that launches a late-season run.

Beau Walker has come on the scene in Eastern Washington and has been everything the Eagles could have imagined in terms of offensive production. With 13 goals and 18 assists, he is second in league scoring behind TWU’s Cody Fidgett. He has picked up a point in 15 of the 17 games he’s played and has been instrumental in keeping the Eagles afloat.

The Eagles offensive production looks similar to the Spartans last year when JP Villeneuve led TWU in scoring with 33 points while the second highest scorer had 13 points. By comparison, Walker’s 31 points leads EWU while Bret Mathews is second with 14 points.

The Eagles will be looking for a bounce back game on Friday against TWU after getting outscored 19-2 over a two-game series with Selkirk last weekend. The Saints won 8-2 Friday before winning 11-0 Saturday. However, the last time EWU suffered losses of this nature – earlier in the year, the Eagles lost 7-1 to Selkirk and 10-2 to Victoria in consecutive games – the Eagles returned to the win column with a 3-2 shootout victory in their next game.

The Eagles can chalk up their lack of success to a variety of things, but one glaring weakness has been their special teams. Despite a league-leading 101 opportunities, EWU’s power play has worked at just 10.9 per cent all year. Its penalty killing hasn’t been much better as the Eagles come into the weekend working at 74.4 per cent. Both special teams units are ranked fifth in the BCIHL.