Preview: Coyotes, Spartans to meet in first elimination contest

We're only a day into the BCIHL championship tournament and it's already crunch time, at least for two teams.

Third-ranked Okanagan College and fifth-place Trinity Western play for their playoff lives in the first elimination game this afternoon.

Face-off goes at 4:30 at Burnaby Winter Club, and the loser will be officially out of the tournament.

The Coyotes hold the upper hand, having beat the Spartans in three of their four meetings this season.

But Trinity Western won the last battle away from home, beating Okanagan College 4-3 on February 12th in Kelowna.

The tournament got off to a slow start for both teams after nearly three weeks away from the league action.

The Coyotes fell behind quickly, 5-1 against Simon Fraser University last night. Despite a valiant comeback, they lost 8-6 to set up this meeting.

The loss was costly as well on the injury front. The Coyotes will be without defenseman Josh Collins for the remainder of the BCIHL tournament. Collins was taken to hospital after separating his shoulder against the Clan.

Coyotes bench boss Kim Barnstable says his group needs a better start, expecting a tough challenge from TWU.

“We were just flat and I expect both teams will be better with a game under our belts,” he notes. “They’ll come hard. They always play us tough.”

The Spartans were blown out early as well, but couldn't recover. After a quick start, which included plenty of chances early, UVic took over. 

But the Vikes killed off a 5-on-3 opportunity and scored soon after on a power play of their own. Victoria jumped out to a 7-0 lead, with their captain Matt Schultz leading the way with two power-play markers in the first.

For TWU, starting goaltender J.P. Chapman pulled himself after giving up a weak goal to Schultz just over the blueline. That made it 3-0 in the first period.

But Chapman will return to the crease this afternoon, as his team needs a win to stay alive. The winner will move on to Friday's action and face the loser of the Thompson Rivers and UVic battle.

The league's best team in the regular season, TRU, and UVic face off at 7:30 tonight at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre for the right to play SFU in Friday's semi-final.

The WolfPack swept the season series against Vikes, winning all four games by an average of three goals.

But the most recent meeting, the final game of the regular season, UVic battled TRU to a 3-2 game. Joel Leonard's second-period marker was the game-winner in Victoria.

Thursday's Playoff Schedule

#3 Okanagan College vs. #5 Trinity Western, 4:30 at Burnaby Winter Club.

#1 Thompson Rivers vs. #4 University of Victoria, 7:30 at Bill Copeland Sports Centre.