Spartans rebound to bounce OC, 'Pack wins opener on Day 2 of Championships

The Trinity Western Spartans may have been the early favourite for an early BCIHL Championships departure after struggling in a Wednesday loss to the University of Victoria, but the Langley-based squad found its game at just the right time a day later and eliminated third-seeded Okanagan College by a 4-3 score.

The Spartans benefitted from a quick start that saw the squad strike for three first period goals including a pair by first star Trevor Edwards.

At the other end of the ice, TWU netminder Tim Zwiers -- starting in place of the injured John-Paul Chapman -- was solid throughout in a 37-save performance.

Sasha Golin, Brock Munro and Dave Mann replied in the loss for the Coyotes, who were considered by many a threat to top seeds Thompson Rivers and Simon Fraser. With the loss, however, Okanagan was the first team eliminated from this year's tournament.

Later Thursday at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre, the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack opened their Championships account with a solid 6-3 win over UVic.

The 'Pack took leads of 3-1 and 5-1 into the intermissions and seemed comfortably in control after Darcy Huisman gave his squad their first two-goal lead in the waning moments of the first period.

Joel Leonard and Andrew Fisher paved the way offensively for the league's regular season champs, each scoring and adding two assists.

Tommy Adair, Thomas Bruton and Brett Campbell each beat Riley Wall, who picked up the win with a 26-save effort.

With today's games in the book, the University of Victoria and Trinity Western will now face off for the second time in three days in Friday's early game (4:30 PM) while the 7:30 PM game will serve as a meeting of the league's top two regular season clubs when SFU and TRU square off.

Catch all the action on the BCIHL Radio Network following the broadcast link from the front page of www.bcihl.ca.