TWU comeback falls short as Simon Fraser picks up Saturday night road win

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Despite a strong third period effort from the Trinity Western men’s hockey team, a valiant comeback attempt fell well short as the Spartans lost 5-2 against Simon Fraser Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.

Down 4-0 early in the third period, the Spartans got goals from Matt Chaput and Matt Ius to re-energize the home side but TWU would get no closer, falling to the Clan for the fourth time this season.

Simon Fraser outshot the Spartans 45-27 as they took a 2-0 lead in the first period and never looked back. While TWU managed to outshoot the Clan 14-13 in the middle stanza and make it a game in the third period, SFU was simply too much for the Spartans on this night. The Clan had five different goal scorers as Taylor Swaffield and Jono Ceci, who each also had one assist, Joey Pavone, Kale Wild and Nick Sandor all got in on the scoring.

Simon Fraser goalie Andrew Parent got the win, stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced. The Spartans Tim Zwiers made 40 saves in a losing effort.

The Spartans were playing without injured defencemen Brad Bakken and Tristano Falbo and goalie Harry Fredeman as well as suspended defenceman Blair Murphy and forward Trevor Beaupre.

"When we have critical players out of the lineup on the blue line, it puts a lot of pressure on the guys who were available," said Spartans coach Dwayne Lowdermilk. "In the second period we had three glorious chances and nothing came of them. Putting the puck to the net is one thing but putting in the net is another."

"The biggest thing is we sat back early on. We started to take the body to them midway through the game and, because of that, we had a little more success. In the second half we picked it up and we didn’t quit but it wasn’t quite enough to get back into the game."

The first period was all SFU as the Clan pushed the offence throughout, outshooting TWU 17-4 and outscoring the Spartans 2-0 on goals by Swaffield and Sandor. In the second, the Spartans started to find their stride but, despite out out-shooting SFU 14-13, it was the Clan scoring the lone goal with Wild tallying a shorthanded marker. In the third period, Pavone scored just 2:11 into the frame to give SFU and 4-0 lead.

The Spartans Chaput and Ius, both scored before the period was six minutes old – the latter of which came on the power play – but that was all TWU would get. Ceci scored on the power play with 4:58 left in the period to round out the scoring.

The Spartans are back on the ice Feb. 1-2 when they host Victoria at the Langley Events Centre. Simon Fraser will travel to play Eastern Washington Feb. 1 and Selkirk Feb. 2.

Game Notes: Both teams were 1 for 5 on the power play.