TWU heads to first-ever BCIHL Finals after semi-final series upset over SFU

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Trinity Western University is headed to the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League championships after a stunning 4-1 victory over Simon Fraser University on Sunday night at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre in Burnaby, B.C.

The stellar goaltending of Silas Matthys, a hat-trick from JP Villeneuve, and a committed team effort got the No. 3 Spartans the victory over the No. 2 Clan and will send TWU into the championship series for the first time in school history.

Matthys was outstanding again tonight stopping 40 of 41 shots faced, while Villeneuve took the offensive load to lead the Spartans.

"Our guys were determined to outwork the talent and we got a great result because of it," said TWU head coach Barret Kropf after the game. "We're a bunch of guys with our lunch buckets and willing to go to work from Silas all the way out. There was a full effort from all 20 guys tonight and we're pretty excited for the program." 

"We have a long way to go with another week yet, but we'll savour this and cherish the memory and get ready starting tomorrow morning."

The Spartans' Jamey Kreller scored TWU's opening goal on the power play at 11:28 of the first period to put the visitors up early.

TWU's special teams were outstanding tonight. The power play was an efficient 1-3, while the penalty kill for the Spartans, who were outshot 41-17 on the evening, kept SFU's power play off the scoreboard for most of the evening as the Clan finished 1-8 with the man advantage.

Villeneuve finishes the series with five goals, while Matthys stopped 110 shots in the three games to earn the Spartans the 2-1 semi-final series win.

TWU had one of their better first periods of the season scoring two goals, Russell and Villeneuve at 2:43, while holding the strong SFU offence off of the score sheet in the opening frame.

In the second period SFU had control of the play for much of the 20 minutes, but TWU would emerge from the period with their 2-0 lead intact.

Villeneuve got the Spartans some breathing room to start the final period when put a laser over the blocker of SFU goalie Andrew Parent just 20 seconds into the period.

Simon Fraser’s goal came on the power play at 15:31 of the third period from Trevor Milner giving the Clan some life. But Villeneuve quickly extinguished any hope for the Clan by reestablishing the three goal margin just over two minutes later.

Parent finished the game giving up four goals on 17 total shots.

The Spartans will face the Selkirk Saints in the championship which begins Friday in Castlegar, B.C.

Puck Drops: TWU has never finished higher than third in the BCIHL… the Spartans were outshot 43-18 in game one and 31-29 in game two…TWU scored seven goals in the series to SFU’s five…during the regular season the Clan outscored the Spartans 32-9.