Trinity Western University completed a weekend home-and-home sweep of second place SFU with a 4-2 win over the Clan on Saturday night at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre in Burnaby.
The Spartans scored the first three goals of the game, all in the opening period, and then, with goalie Harry Fredeman holding the fort defensively, hung on to beat the Clan for the second time in as many night despite being outshot 46-27.
"Harry stood on his head, but to our team’s credit everybody battled hard tonight," said Spartans coach Dwayne Lowdermilk. "We played a disciplined system and for the second game in a row reaped the benefits."
Cody Stephenson got the Spartans rolling when he opened the scoring at 12:51 of the first period. Less than three minutes later, the Spartans doubled their lead when Matt Chaput found the back of the net. Then, just 30 seconds after that, Matt Ius got in on the scoring action when he beat SFU goalie Graeme Gordon to give TWU a 3-0 lead and what would prove to be the eventual game-winner.
With just 3:29 left in the frame and only 23 seconds after Ius’ goal, SFU got its first tally of the night when Chris Hoe beat Fredeman to make it a 3-1 game going into the second period.
The Spartans restored their three-goal lead less than three minutes into the middle stanza when Josh Stephenson tallied to make it 4-1. With 2:44 left in the second Tony Oak got SFU back to within two goals, but that would be as close as the Clan would get. A scoreless third period allowed TWU to skate away with a 4-2 win.
Trinity Western is now 6-14-0-1 on the season and moves to within four points of fourth place Victoria. The loss drops SFU to 15-5-0-2. With only two games left on SFU’s schedule and sitting four points behind first place Selkirk, the Clan is assured of second place in the BCIHL standings.