SFU offence comes alive as Clan top WolfPack to open weekend series

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Thompson Rivers University opened their home-and-home weekend series against SFU with a 7-1 loss on home ice at Kamloops Memorial Arena.

Trevor Milner opened the scoring for the Clan midway through the first period and SFU took a 1-0 lead into intermission. Blueliner Tyler Mah extended the lead at the 11:22 mark of the middle frame and the visitors added another on the power-play from Kale Wild to head into the third up three goals.

Nick Sandor and TRU's Tyler Jackson traded goals in the first half of the third period, and the Clan poured it on late with markers from Jesse Mysiorek, Taylor Piller and Mah, who picked up the first two-goal game of his BCIHL career.

"The things that we've continually stressed as being important throughout the year just weren’t there tonight," says WolfPack head coach Don Schulz. "We infrequently played up to our ability and bought into SFU’s game style and they are a bigger, more experienced team."

Schulz attributed the less to several factors, including too many neutral zone turnovers, not enough poise in the defensive zone, too much panic and a lack of hustle on offense.

SFU netminder Graeme Gordon turned aside 29 of 30 shots on the night while Shane Mainprize conceded five goals in the loss. he was liften with eight minutes remaining in the third period for Adrien Hervillard, who allowed a pair of goals on eight shots.

"It was no reflection on (Mainprize)," says Schulz of pulling his starting goaltender. "I want to use him again tomorrow and he played well and deserved to rest up a bit."

The Clan outshot TRU by a 49-30 margin.

Thompson Rivers will look to bounce back on Saturday night when they play the return leg in Burnaby. Faceoff is set for 7:00 PM from the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

"We had a long talk after the game,"  said Schulz. "The boys need to have pride in who they are and bring that to the rink tomorrow night."