Spartans' rally falls short in Kamloops as TRU keeps rolling

The Trinity Western University Men’s Hockey team scored twice in the final frame, but it wasn’t enough as the Spartans' rally fell short and TWU dropped a 5-4 decision to the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Saturday night in Kamloops, B.C.

The loss drops TWU to 2-5-1 on the season, while the win moves TRU to 7-1-0.

Down 4-2 to start the third period TWU received goals from Nathan Wiebe at 9:56 and Pete Masterton at 4:28 to pull within one. Then, with 1:30 left, TWU’s Robert Vos was awarded a penalty shot. Vos made his move beat the WolfPack’s Riley Wall, but his attempt to tie the game just slid wide and the Spartans had to settle for the one goal loss.

“It was a good game. We were a little loose at the start, but we tightened things up in the third period and the guys played really well for the final 20 minutes,” commented TWU head coach Dwayne Lowdermilk. “Sean (Langrieger) had a great third period for us and Vos, Masterton and Wiebe played really well once we put them back together in the third period. And even with the loss the game is a real confidence builder.”

The Spartans split the goaltending duties between JP Chapman and Sean Langrieger. Chapman played the first two periods before Langrieger relieved him in the third period. Thompson Rivers outshot Trinity Western 47-26 on the evening. Chapman made 32 saves and Langrieger made 10 saves for the Spartans, while Wall made 22 saves for the WolfPack.

TWU had one penalty in the game, while TRU had four. The two teams were tied at 1-1 at the end of the first period and TWU trailed 5-2 at the end of the second. TWU’s other goals came from Vos at 19:41 in the first period and Brendan Stephen at 7:42 in the second period.

Scoring for TRU was Zac Rasmussen at 17:45 in the first period, Andrew Fisher at 14:22 in the second period, David Gore at 8:25 in the second, Jassi Sangha at 5:00 in the second and Jesse Anderson with the game winner at 3:14 in the second period.

The three stars of the game were:
1st – TRU Jose Reyes
2nd – TRU Andrew Fisher
3rd – TWU Robert Vos

Next up for the Spartans is Selkirk College on Sat. Nov. 27 at 1 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.