WolfPack's special teams the difference in elimination game win over EWU

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The Thompson Rivers Univesity WolfPack are still alive in the 2011-12  BC Intercollegiate Hockey League ChampionshipTournament.  

The WolfPack downed the Eastern Washington Eagles 2-1 in an elimination game at Memorial Arena on Thursday.

The WolfPack opened the scoring of a chippy game at the 16:45 mark of the first period when BCIHL 2nd team allstar Andrew Fisher(Kamloops, BC) beat Eagle goalie Jason Greenwell (Spokane, WA). Curtis Tonello (NorthVancouver, BC) and WolfPack player of the game Jassi Sangha (Kamloops,BC) drew the assists.

TRU took a 2-0 lead on the power play. It was Sangha who roofed a shot high blocker side on Greenwell with the man advantage.   Shane Oatway and David Gore (both Kamloops, BC) got the assists. In that second period, TRU outshot Eastern Washington 10-6.

In the third period, the WolfPack dominated in the shot department(18-7), but  the Eagles would get the only goal.  AJ Sanders (Fairbanks,AK) broke down the left side and ruined the shutout of Riley Wall(Kamloops, BC) . Jake Flynn (Wenatchee, WA) and AJ King (Anchorage,AK) drew the assists.The Pack outshot the Huskis on the night 32-22.WolfPack assistant captain Cody Lockwood (Kamloops, BC) said thedifference in the game was mental toughness.  “We stuck to our gameplan pretty well,” he said.  “ It was not the full 60 that we wantedbut a win is a win.”He felt this game had more intensity than their previous four gamesagainst Eastern Washington. “With the loser going home, there was alot on the line.  We had never beaten them (2 losses and 2 ties) before.I thought the difference in the game was that we outskated them. We gotin their head and they took some bad penalties.”Thompson Rivers head coach Don Schulz  was pleased to get the win.  “Eastern Washington is a very tough team to play against. They are veryaggressive.  They were undisciplined at times. If you don’t stayfocused it is easy to go down that path.  Our guys stayed thecourse.”Schulz inserted Wall and had Drew Defrias and Nathan Micheaels (allKamloops, BC)   “Riley did an outstanding job today, he did very well.Drew and Kevin Neilsen (North Vancouver, BC)  were thrown in because ofa couple of injuries.  They did a great job.  That is the mark of a goodteam. It is great to have some depth and get the victory.”The WolfPack will play again at 4 pm on Friday (Mar 16) against thefirst place SFU Clan. The Clan lost in a shootout to U VIC.  The scorewas 4-3.  Victoria tied the game at 18:29 of the third period when theypulled goalie Jason Margolus (Vancouver, BC).  Brent Sutherland (WestVancouver, BC)  scored on Graeme gordon (North Vancouver, BC).The teams went to 12 shooters.  Dennis Pavlina (Osoyoos, BC) had twoshots, his second went in to give UVIC the win.  They will meet OkanaganCollege Coyotes in the feature game on Friday at 7:30 pm. The Pack andSFU go at it at 4:30 pm with the loser being eliminated.  SFU beat TRU twice, the WolfPack won once and they tied once in theregular season.