Trinity Western scores first Spartans win in Season Opener

In the first Spartans Men’s Hockey game in 20 years, the hometown Trinity Western squad downed its cross-town rivals from Fraser Valley 5-4 at the Langley Events Centre Friday night.

While Fraser Valley scored the opening goal less than four minutes into the game after a fluttering puck found its way to the front of the net and was quickly banged home by Chris Price, it didn’t take long for Trinity Western to find its game and even up the score. And they did it with, what will be remembered in Spartan lore as, “Dwayne Lowdermilk guts.”

Midway through the first, with the Spartans already on a 5-on-3 and the faceoff in the Fraser Valley zone, Lowdermilk pulled goalie John-Paul Chapman in favour of a sixth skater and, via a set play, Robert Vos hit Pete Masterton in the slot with pass and Masterton rifled it home through Fraser Valley goalie Adam Postmus' five-hole and made Lowdermik into an instant hero.

The trick paid off as after that, momentum soon swung in Trinity Western’s way. Three and a half minutes after the Spartans first goal since 1991, Vos – last year’s BCIHL’s leading scorer and recent transfer from Fraser Valley – came off the right wing and Postmus up top. And the lead was never relinquished.

The heated affair continued in typical fashion with these two teams as it quickly became clear the change of name from Titans to Spartans wasn’t about to simmer tensions within the already feisty rivalry. After nearly every whistle, there was a scrum of sorts but the physical nature only added to a game that was about as entertaining as one could have asked for.

A little more than six minutes into the second period, the Spartans Josh Stephenson gave TWU a 3-1 lead when he slipped through a pair of defencemen, put a shot on net and then buried his own rebound. But on this night, despite being eventually outshot 32-16, Fraser Valley was not in a quitting mood. And a 3-1 deficit wasn’t going to do them in.

The boys from Abbotsford made it a 3-2 game with just under seven minutes left in the second when Graham Fast slammed the puck past Chapman on a bang-bang passing play. The Spartans replied with a late goal in the second from Brenden Stephen before Vos notched his second midway through the third to make it 5-2. Fraser Valley made it close with a goal from Mike Wilson shortly after Vos’ marker and another one with just 1:45 left in the third, but that was as close as Fraser Valley would come as the Spartans skated away with a victory in their first game of the year.

1st Star – Robert Vos - TWU
2nd Star – Jeff Barberis – TWU
3rd Star – Jared Abrams - UFV