Thompson Rivers takes two from Okanagan in weekend set

When Thompson Rivers University head coach Chris Hans entered the weekend, he was hoping for the best. After seeing his Thompson Rivers University WolfPack play its first two games in the BC Intercollegiate Hockey League—you couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.

The WolfPack won both of their games this weekend (Sept 27th and 28th). On Sunday afternoon at Memorial Arena, TRU came away with a 5-4 victory over the Okanagan College Crusaders.

The teams exchanged goals in the first period: Kevin Sparling (center, Fort St.John, BC) scored his second and third goals of the season for TRU. Former Kamloops Blazer and OCC Captain Sasha Golin and Matt Elia responding for the Crusaders.

TRU went ahead 4-2 after two thanks to goals from Cody Lockwood (defence, Kamloops, BC) and Jose Reyes (forward, Kamloops, BC). But the Crusaders came back with two goals of their own to tie the game at 4-4 on markers from Kelly Loudoun and Jerry Gaba.

TRU salted the victory away when Jassi Sangha (forward, Kamloops, BC) scored his second goal of the season with 7:54 remaining in the contest. For the second game in a row, Okanagan outshot TRU. This time the margin was 45-33.

Brock Fraser (Kamloops, BC) started and won the game in the nets for the WolfPack.

“Brock was strong,” said Hans afterwards “Our early season jitters continued though. We did play gutsy in the third to secure the victory. I’m looking forward to getting back to practice to work on things.”

The WolfPack don’t play again until they head to the coast to meet Trinity Western on Oct 9th in Langley and the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford October 10th.

Their next home games aren’t until November 14th and 15th when they entertain Trinity Western at Memorial Arena.

SLAPSHOTS: The three stars in the contest were Brock Fraser (TRU), Sasha Golin (Okanagan College) and Jassi Sangha (TRU).