Colpron's four-point effort leads Mariners to weekend sweep of Vikes

Vancouver Island University capped off their first-ever weekend home-and-home series against the University of Victoria with a 7-4 victory on Saturday night at the Nanaimo Ice Centre, sweeping the two-game set and picking up their first BCIHL regular season win on home ice.

Jordan Evans gave the Vikes an early lead at the 7:41 mark of the first period, but Josh Cook scored later in the frame to tie the game heading into intermission. The Mariners took over in the second, as Michael Olson-Eyre, Gage Colpron and Tyler Kerner all scored to give the hosts a three-goal lead.

The third period was a wild one at both ends of the ice, as UVic cut the Mariners lead to two goals on three separate occasions before Olson-Eyre scored into an empty net to put the finishing touches on the win.

Gage Colpron set a new team record with a four-point night for VIU, scoring twice while assisting on two others. Olson-Eyre and Ryan Coghlan had three-point nights, as did Matechuk in a losing cause.

Carson Schammerhorn turned aside 28 shots for his second win in consecutive nights, while Michael Fredrick made 36 saves in the loss. Both teams finished 0/3 on the power play.

With the victory, the Mariners now hold a five-point lead over the Vikes for the BCIHL's fourth and final playoff spot. The Vikes dropped to 1-7-0-1 and sit fifth, three points ahead of Eastern Washington.

The Vikes will travel south the face the Eagles (0-8-0-0) next weekend, while VIU will hit the Lower Mainland for road games against Simon Fraser and Trinity Western.