Bruce nets hat trick but Spartans fall to Clan in exhibition meeting

Trinity Western University first-year forward Josh Bruce scored a hat-trick, but it wasn’t quite enough as the Spartans lost 5-3 to Simon Fraser University in exhibition action on Saturday evening at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

Bruce opened the scoring in the first period and then tallied two in the third period to spark a comeback bid, but the Spartans never got back on even terms after trailing by three goals through 40 minutes. An empty-netter from the Clan late in the third period snuffed out the Spartans rally.

"Going into this offseason, we saw that SFU was in a major rebuild and they did a fantastic job of bringing a lot of high-end junior players and that’s a new lineup over there and they’re going to be a squad to contend with," says TWU Head Coach Barret Kropf. "There is lots of firepower there and they’re very opportunistic. I just think SFU’s speed and their puck movement was quite good for a first game for them and they controlled a lot of the pace tonight."

TWU’s Brandon Potomak and Kade Vilio had two assists apiece, while Travis Verveda and Dustin Deugau each added a single helper. SFU’s Christian Bosa, Ty Westgard, Jake Keremidschieff, Jordan Dawson and Arjun Badh scored for the Clan.

After TWU went up 1-0, the Clan responded with four straight goals, including three in the span of 1:45 early in the second period. TWU was one for four with the man-advantage while SFU was unsuccessful on all four of its powerplay opportunities.

"We’ll get back to the drawing board and look at some film and pick up some of our defensive zone collapses and go from there," says Kropf. "Josh Bruce has been a great addition to our lineup, but we need to get some of our other guys going as well.”

The Spartans are on the road next weekend for a pair of exhibition contests against Portage College and SAIT in Castlegar.