TWU picks up third weekend win as offence explodes late against SFU

Trinity Western University capped off an impressive weekend, winning its third road game in four days with a 7-3 victory over Simon Fraser University on Monday afternoon at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

Coming off wins over Victoria and Vancouver Island, which helped the Spartans clinch the regular season title, TWU knocked off the Clan in a rare matinee to improve to 17-4-0-1.

With a 3-2 lead through 40 minutes, the Spartans exploded for four goals in the final frame to earn the win. SFU dropped to 10-10 on the season.

TWU had six different goal-scorers, with Jacob Mills scoring twice while Travis Verveda, Spencer Roberts, Logan Casavant, Josh Sylvain and Elijah Vilio tallying singles. The Spartans' Allistair Duncan made 27 saves to earn his third win of the season. TWU’s Casavant and Dustin Deugau also had three assists apiece.

SFU’s Mathew Berry-Lamontagna, Mitch Newsome and Kyle Bergh scored for the Clan.

The Spartans penalty kill played a key shutdown role, holding SFU without a goal on 11 opportunities. Meanwhile, TWU was two for eight with power play.

Casavant opened the scoring just 28 seconds into the opening frame before Mills doubled the Spartans lead with the man-advantage at 11:40 of first period. Berry-Lamontagna struck back with 6:26 left in the period, but Roberts found the back of the net just 30 seconds later to restore TWU’s two-goal cushion.

With two minutes left in the second period, the Clan climbed within a goal when Newsome scored an unassisted marker. However, Mills buried his second of the game just over three minutes into the third period and Verveda all but sealed the win, putting TWU up 5-2 with a powerplay goal, at 4:27 of final frame.

Sylvain potted a shorthanded goal with 6:35 left before Bergh replied with SFU’s third at 16:00. Vilio scored into an empty net with 11 seconds left in the contest.

“Three games in a weekend in a college setting is a tough ask," says TWU head coach Barret Kropf. "It’s almost like playoff hockey, which might come as an advantage down the road to experience what it’s like to play three games in a short window.

"We are pretty banged up, so we had to blend the lines a bit and try to make some things work. For us, it’s not a matter of back-ups, it’s next-ups. So, we had some guys get into the lineup and they were really effective and did a great job of securing a win. Our penalty kill was really effective and we got a couple on the power play. So, overall, we’re pretty happy that we got all three wins out of this weekend.”

TWU blueliner Deugau is now alone in second in the BCIHL scoring race, with five goals and 24 points. Fifth-year Florian Niedermaier is tied for second in BCIHL history in games played (with SFU’s Berry-Lamontagna), at 117. Both Niedermaier and Berry-Lamontagna trail former Victoria Vike Shawn Mueller, at 119.

The Spartans have clinched top spot in the BCIHL regular season standings for the second year in a row and third time in the last five years.

The Spartans have the week off before travelling to play the University of Victoria on Mar. 1-2 in the final weekend of the regular season.