Clan move into third place with second straight win over Trinity Western

For the second week in a row, Trinity Western University lost to Simon Fraser by a three-goal margin as it fell 4-1 to the Clan on Saturday evening at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre in Burnaby.

Coming off a 3-0 loss against SFU last Saturday, TWU fell behind by two goals early in the first period and never fully recovered as the Clan skated to its 12th win of the season.

TWU, who clinched first place in the BCIHL more than two weeks ago, dropped to 16-5-0-2 and lost for the third time in as many games. SFU improved to 12-11-0-0.

With the Spartans and Selkirk securing the top two spots in the standings and, as such, home ice advantage for the opening round of the playoffs, SFU and Victoria will go into the final weekend of the season locked in a battle for third place. The third place finisher will play the Saints in the first round while the fourth place finisher will play TWU.

The Spartans will finish their regular season schedule Feb. 27 when they host Victoria at 7 p.m. at the Langley Sportsplex.

“I think overall, we just didn’t capitalize on our scoring chances like we have in the past,” said Spartans coach Barret Kropf.

“We missed the net on four or five wide open chances and just didn’t bear down. When you’re not taking advantage of those opportunities, the puck often seems to end up in the back of your own net. That happened a couple of times tonight. But full credit to SFU. They came out and had a balanced approach to their game.”

SFU’s Matthew Luongo scored 1:31 into the first period and then Trent Murdoch doubled the Clan’s lead just beyond the six minute mark.

The Spartans Blair Murphy scored to make it 2-1 midway through the frame, but that would be the end of the Spartans offence.

"They got out to a quick start and had us on our heels for the first 10 minutes, but I thought we battled back well to finish the first period strong,” Kropf said.

However, despite a strong late first period showing from the Spartans, Jono Ceci scored in the second period to make it 3-1 and then Graham Smerek tallied in the third period to round out the scoring.

Aaron Oakley got the start for TWU in net and made 34 saves on 38 shots. The Clan’s Jordan Liem stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced to earn the win.

Game Notes: Prior to TWU’s three-game losing skid, the Spartans had rebounded from their previous four losses with wins…this is only the third time all season that TWU has been held to less than two goals…TWU is now 3-2-0-2 against SFU this season.