Gordon, Matthys combine to lead TWU over Eastern, nab league-best 8th win

Trinity Western University’s Grange Gordon earned his first ever two-goals in the BCIHL as he helped lead the visiting Spartans past Eastern Washington 5-2 on Saturday night at the EWU Recreation Complex.

Gordon opened the scoring in the first period and then notched an unassisted tally in the third to give the Spartans a three-goal cushion. JP Villeneuve, Jacob Mills and Jamie Russell also got in on the goal-scoring action as TWU beat the Eagles for the second night in a row and improved to a league best 8-2-0-1.

Silas Matthys made 32 saves for his eighth win of the season. \

Beau Walker and John Vant scored for the Eagles, while Austin Brihn made 28 saves on 31 shots over 40 minutes before he was replaced by Tyler O’Donnell for the third period. O’Donnell stopped 11 of the 12 shots he faced.

The Spartans have also now won three in a row and have allowed just three goals against combined over that span.

“It was a pretty defensive battle and our defencemen are just playing so good right now and it’s fun to watch,” said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. “Guys like Murph (Blair Murphy) and Harcs (Jake Harcoff) and Baks (Ryan Bakken) are really controlling the play on the back end and our first passes out of our zone have been critical to our success. From Silas on out, our defence has just been playing really well.

“And getting some depth scoring was key for us today. Our centre men are really dialed in on the faceoffs and overall I think we’re playing well right now. Guys have been working hard to get where we’re at. The teams in this league are great and the parity in this league is something for our conference to be proud of. Any night any team can win. I’m just glad we’ve been able to find success to this point.”

Gordon opened the scoring for the Spartans at 7:58 of the first period to get the visitors rolling. However, less than two minutes later the Eagles equalized when Vant’s shot caromed off a Spartans skate and past Matthys.

In the second, the Spartans took over, as both Villeneuve and Mills scored to give TWU a 3-1 lead heading to the final frame. PJ Buys assisted the both goals while Micah Cockrill and Villeneuve each picked up second period assists.

Gordon put TWU up by three early in the third period with an unassisted marker that essentially put the game to bed. With less than three minutes to play, Walker scored to make it a two-goal game before Russell slotted one into an empty net just six second before the final buzzer.

The Spartans are back on the ice Nov. 29 when they play Simon Fraser on the road.

Game Notes: Prior to this year, TWU had never won more than five regular season games before Christmas…the Spartans were 0 for 1 on the power play while EWU was 0 for 4…TWU outshot EWU 43-34.