Despite leading 2-0 after the first period, the Trinity Western University men’s hockey team was unable to hang on down the stretch and lost 4-3 to Simon Fraser University on Saturday at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.
Up 3-1 going into the third period, the Spartans allowed SFU to score three goals in the final 20 minutes, including the winner with just 3:14 left in the game, as TWU remained winless on the season and are now 0-5-0-0. The win improves SFU’s record to 3-0-0-0.
Simon Fraser’s Nick Sandor scored the go-ahead goal late in the third to cap a rally that saw Kody Dhaliwal scored 1:47 into the third and Jesse Mysiorek tally at the 5:46 mark. Bruin McDonald was the other goal-scorer for SFU.
For the Spartans, it was Jamie Russell, Brodie Hemrich and Nathan Wiebe providing the offence.
The Spartans Harry Fredeman made 45 saves in the loss while SFU’s Andrew Parent stopped 16 of the 19 shots he faced.
“To play this hard and lose because of a late third period goal stings bad, but we executed our system for 56 minutes and they capitalized late and that was the difference,” said Spartans coach Dwayne Lowdermilk.
Despite being outshot 13-7 in the first period, it was the Spartans on top 2-0 after 20 minutes. With goals from Russell at 10:57 and Hemrich at 15:55, TWU had the edge going into the second.
Simon Fraser’s McDonald scored less than two minutes into the second period to cut the Spartans lead in half but with 7:37 left in the middle stanza.
Wiebe reestablished TWU’s two-goal edge. Although TWU was outshot 36-13 after two periods, the Spartans were up 3-1 going into the final frame. However, that’s when the wheels came off for TWU as SFU rallied with three unanswered goals for the win.
VICTORIA
SIMON FRASER
OKANAGAN
LOGAN LAKE
VANCOUVER ISLAN.
