Victoria, SFU grab opening wins on Day One of 2011 BCIHL Championships

The format of the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League Championships may not be the easiest to explain over lunch, but Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria got the gist of things on Wednesday by correctly following the tournament mantra: Just win, baby!

In the event's afternoon kick-off, UVic scored early and often and cruised to a 9-3 victory over Trinity Western University at the Burnaby Winter Club.

A pair of first period power-play goals from captain Matt Schultz set the tone for the Vikes, who chased TWU standout netminder John-Paul Chapman before intermission.

Victoria then scored four times in the second while led offensively by a five-point night from Mark Prest.

Josh Stephenson, Benton Nickel and Scott Holmes replied in the loss for the Spartans.

Later Wednesday, Simon Fraser jumped out to a 5-1 lead over the Okanagan College Coyotes but had to hold on for a wild 8-6 win.

Colby Kulhanek scored twice to put the Clan ahead, but an Okanagan comeback keyed by Luc Blinkhorn saw SFU scrambling late in the game.

Shorthanded for the final minutes of regulation, SFU finally put the game away on empty net goals from Paul Moscone and Bill Smith.

With the win, the Clan advance to play on Friday evening against the winner of tomorrow's Thompson Rivers-Victoria match-up at 7:30 PM. In the early game, Trinity Western and Okanagan will battle to stave off elimination and advance to a Friday afternoon match-up.

You can catch all the BCIHL Tournament action in live streaming audio by following the broadcast links on the front page of www.bcihl.ca.