Thompson Rivers WolfPack sweep weekend series vs. Trinity Western

The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack swept the Trinity Western Titans in B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League action this weekend. After beating Trinity Western 6-4 on Saturday night, the WolfPack downed the Titans 6-3 on Sunday before over 300 fans.

"We got the four points and that was the objective this weekend," said WolfPack head coach Chris Hans. "We have some more work to do. It wasn't pretty - we looked rusty from the three-week layoff and took some undisciplined penalties. But all in all, I was happy with the effort."

The WolfPack led 2-1 after the first period on goals from Casey Patterson and Mick Ludvig. Trinity's Trevor Edwards was the only one to beat WolfPack goalie Brock Fraser (1st year, Kamloops, BC).

TRU made it a 3-1 game just 16 seconds into the second period when Cody Rose capitalized on a give and go with Jassi Sangha (1st year, forward, Kamloops, BC). That power play goal saw Trinity starter Evan Menzies pull himself from the game to be replaced by John-Paul Chapman. The WolfPack went up by three goals at the 6 minute mark of period two on a goal by Cody Lockwood (3rd year, defence, Kamloops, BC). That was Lockwood's second goal of the weekend.

TRU added another power play goal before the period ended. At 19:04, Jose Reyes (1st year, forward, Kamloops, BC) capitalized on a loose puck. Reyes had himself quite a weekend scoring four goals (three on Saturday night--two of them shorthanded) while drawing praise from his coach.

"I haven't scored that many goals in my entire life," Hans laughed. "The key to him is his ability to skate. He is a strong person and hard to move off the puck. He is aware where he is on the ice and where his teammates are. He got two shorthanded goals which were beauties."

Reyes was quick to credit his line mates.

"We played well as a line. We went pretty hard on the PK and it paid off."

The Titans beat Fraser less than 13 seconds later with Josh Stephenson getting credit. In the third period, The WolfPack counted their fourth power play marker of the afternoon when Daniel Robinson (2nd year, forward, 100 Mile House, BC) finished off a play involving Kevin Sparling (2nd year, forward, Fort St.John, BC) and Lockwood. Less than 2 minutes later at the 6:20 mark, Andrew Fisher (3rd year, forward, Kamloops, BC) was alone in the slot in front of Chapman and banged it home to make it 6-2. The Titans added one more in the final minute (19:52) when Benton Nickel rippled the twine.

The WolfPack outshot Trinity 36-25 on the day to move to 5 wins and 3 losses on the season. Trinity fell to 4 wins and 6 losses.

"I'm happy for our guys," says Hans. "We had strong goaltending this weekend and we were pretty explosive. Sometimes we were a little lackadaisical, and rusty but fortunately were able to get the points."

Reyes figured that Trinity wanted to prove something to the WolfPack.

"We went into their arena and embarrassed them. They wanted to do the same. They had us 4-1 yesterday before we came back."

Next up for TRU is a visit to the coast to take on SFU in Burnaby on November 20th before meeting the University of Fraser Valley in Abbotsford on Saturday November 21st. Their next home action is November 28th and 29th at Memorial Arena against Selkirk College.

ICE CHIPS: TRU goalie Blake Tancock (1st year, Chilliwack, BC) is doubtful for next weekend with a shoulder problem. The WolfPack played without captain David Boychuk (3rd year, defence, Edmonton, Alta). He is out with a wrist injury. The crowd at Saturday's game was estimated to be as large as a thousand people.

Hans said it always tougher playing the same team for a second straight day with both clubs taking undisciplined penalties.

"There is always bantering going on. Tempers start to get a little flared. It is a unique challenge, it doesn't usually happen that often in hockey." Reyes said the schedule of the BCIHL isn't a smooth one with so many weeks off between games. "For sure," he stated. "It was good to get back and get the sweep this weekend with those two huge games next week."

He was the Player of the Game on Saturday. David Gore (2nd year, forward, Kamloops, BC) was the Player of the Game on Sunday.