Seven TWU skaters hit the net in lopsided road victory over UVic

Trinity Western University scored a season-high eight goals as the Spartans beat the University of Victoria by an 8-1 score on Friday evening at the Ian Stewart Complex.

With seven different goal-scorers and 12 Spartans collecting at least a point, TWU (7-1) cruised to its seventh straight regular season win over the Vikes dating back to 2016-17.

The win also pushed the Spartans to the top of the BCIHL standings, passing idle Vancouver Island (6-3-0-1), who TWU will face Saturday.

“It was our most complete 60 minutes of the season," says TWU head coach Barret Kropf. "It was enjoyable to see our guys doing everything we asked of them in every area of the ice. It was a full 200-foot game in terms of both our defensive zone coverage and then offensively, we used our speed and kept moving pucks with speed."

After the Vikes' Hayden Guilderson opened the scoring late in the opening frame and held a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes, the Spartans scored four goals in the second period and another four in the third.

Brayden Brown scored twice, while second-year Dylan Cusmano and first-year Josh Sylvain each tallied their first goals as Spartans. Joseph Sylvain, Logan Casavant, Dustin Deugau and Spencer Gerth also scored for TWU.

TWU’s Lucas Mills stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced. The Vikes' Michael Fredrick made 46 saves in the loss.

After Guilderson’s power play goal tallied the first of the night, Gerth evened the score just over a minute into the second period. That launched the Spartans offensive barrage. Brown then scored on the power play, at 4:33 of the second for what would stand up as the game-winner. Joseph Sylvain and Deugau buried before the end of the middle frame.

Casavant scored at 13:27 of the third period before Cusmano scored his first goal as a Spartan 31 seconds later. A second goal from Brown on the power play with 4:17 left in the period put the Spartans up 7-1, before Josh Sylvain scored with 17 seconds left in the game.

TWU finished 2 for 4 on the power play, while Victoria was 1 for 2.

"It was exciting to see Josh and Dylan both get their first goals with us. And for Dylan it was super exciting to see after a year and a half of just being such a solid leader for us in all areas and to see him get his first goal was pretty special. Cusmano has been a special player for us and does so many things that go unseen at times, but they all help us so much. Our power play was clicking and penalty kill was going well and it was a good team win.”

Since losing to the Vikes in the 2017 BCIHL Championship series, TWU has won eight straight games against Victoria, including the regular season and playoffs. The last time TWU lost to Victoria in the regular season was Jan. 14, 2017 (5-1).

Deugau continues to lead TWU in scoring with two goals and 10 assists, which has him in fourth in the BCIHL scoring race.

TWU has outscored its opponents 33-16 in eight games and Mills is now 7-0-0 on the year with a league-leading 1.20 goals against average and a .952 save percentage.

The Spartans will play Vancouver Island University on Saturday in Nanaimo, B.C. at 7:15 PM.