TWU sweeps weekend series vs. UVic as Fredeman earns shutout

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Trinity Western University kept its early season momentum rolling as it won for the fourth time in five outings and completed a weekend sweep of Victoria with a 2-0 win on Saturday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre.

The Spartans' Andrew Wheeler scored an unassisted marker in the first period and then Aaron Gruenhage gave TWU an insurance tally in the second period to help the Spartans to the victory.

Goalie Harry Fredeman stopped all 42 shots he faced as he picked up his second shutout of the season and his fourth win. Fredeman now has a 1.15 goals against average and a .966 save percentage.

Victoria goalie Robert Simmons made 33 saves on 35 shots.

The loss drops the Vikes to 0-8 and they have now been shut out in five of their last six games.

Despite being outshot for the second game in a row against Victoria, the Spartans again earned a win, albeit in much more impressive fashion than Friday’s squeaker.

"It was a great team effort," said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. "We had all four lines and all six defencemen going and obviously Harry was back there holding the fort. I think after last night when we had a lot of individual play, tonight was a bit of gut-check time. And today we came at it with a team approach."

In the first period, the Spartans outshot Victoria 13-10 and were rewarded for their efforts when Wheeler scored his second goal of the season with just 1:54 left in the frame.

The second period was a different story in the shot count, but the exact same tale in the goal count. The Vikes outshot TWU 24-13, but it was Gruenhage scoring his second of the year to give the Spartans a two-goal cushion. JP Villeneuve and Riley Schmidt picked up assists. In the third period, TWU played a defensive style and held Victoria to just eight shots on net as they closed out the game with little push back from the Vikes.

"In the third period, every line bought into a 1-2-2 forecheck and we trapped them and frustrated them and finished the game well," Kropf said. "We just did the little things tonight much better and that makes this win feel a whole lot better than last night."

The Spartans are back on the ice Nov. 1-2 when they will play at Eastern Washington Friday at 7:00 PM and at Selkirk College on Saturday at 7:00 PM. Both games can be seen at bcihl.fasthockey.com.

Game Notes: TWU as 0 for 5 on the power play while Victoria was 0 for 3.