Kreller's third period winner lifts Spartans to home win over SFU

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Jamey Kreller scored midway through the third period to break a 2-2 deadlock and help Trinity Western University secure a 3-2 win over Simon Fraser on Saturday evening at the Langley Events Centre.

The win improves the Spartans to 5-2 on the year and extends their winning streak to four games while also snapping a five-game losing streak against Simon Fraser (4-3), dating back to last year.

The Clan’s Brendan Lamont opened the scoring 15 seconds into the game before Matthew Luongo doubled SFU’s lead with just over two minutes left in the first period. However, TWU’s Dawson Sawatzky sparked the Spartans offence, scoring with 1:20 left in the frame and then Brett Wur equalized with 20 seconds remaining in the first period.

After a scoreless second period, Kreller tallied the game winner at 9:26 of the third to secure the win for the Spartans in their final game of a five-game home stand.

“SFU came out and got an opportunistic bounce right off the bat there and our guys were kind of reeling a bit,” said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. “We said we wanted to come out and set the tone and then to have that happen in the first 20 seconds was a bit deflating."

"But once we were able to calm down a bit, we got a couple of quick ones at the end of the period and that really gave us some momentum going into the locker room. After that, we kind of hit the reset button and we came out with a solid 40 minutes and in the end it was another solid team effort.”

TWU goalie Silas Matthys picked up the win after stopping 32 of the 34 shots he faced. The Clan’s Jordan Liem made 31 saves in a losing effort. The Clan got a pair of power play opportunities to tie the game in the final 10 minutes of the third, but TWU’s penalty kill unit was up to the task.

“I thought the penalty kill unit really won us the game in the third period and our guys battled through the adversity, which was really good to see,” Kropf said.

The Spartans will now have a week off before a road weekend in which they play Victoria on Friday, Nov. 27 and SFU on Saturday, Nov. 28.

Game Notes: TWU was 0/2 on the power play while SFU was 0/4.