TWU captures first-ever BCIHL regular season title with commanding win

Trinity Western University made history on Friday night as it clinched first place in the BCIHL for the first time ever with a 10-4 win over the University of Victoria at the Ian Stewart Complex.

Prior to this year, TWU had never finished higher than third in the BCIHL’s regular season standings, but with a record of 16-2-0-2, the Spartans locked up top spot with four games still to play. With the win, the Spartans also ran their TWU-record winning streak to eight games.

The loss drops Victoria to 9-7-0-3. With five games to play, the Vikes are now tied with Selkirk for second in the BCIHL.

Victoria led 2-1 after the first period, but TWU outscored the Vikes 5-1 in the second period and 4-1 in the third period to pick up a six-goal win.

The Spartans had 12 players hit the score sheet, with Andrew Wheeler leading the way with four points, including a goal and three assists. TWU had eight different goal-scorers, with Jamey Kreller and Mattias Schmitt nabbing two, and Jamie Russell, Ryan Bakken, Dawson Sawatzky, Grange Gordon, Cody Fidgett and Wheeler earning singles.

Linden Horswill had two goals for Victoria while Shawn Mueller and Cole Conway also scored for the Vikes.

The Spartans' Silas Matthys made 27 saves to earn his league-leading 14th win of the year. Victoria’s Scott Legault stopped 18 of the 28 shots he faced.

Bakken opened the scoring just over five minutes into the first period, but Victoria responded with two goals in the last five minutes, by Conway and Mueller, to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission.

Just 23 seconds into the middle frame, Schmitt evened the score at 2-2 and, from there, the Spartans rolled. TWU scored five goals in the first 10:44 of the second period to go up 6-2. With one minute left in the period, Horswill scored to make it 6-3.

In the third period, TWU scored four more goals while Victoria responded with one. The two teams play in the back end of the weekend series Saturday at 12:45 p.m.

Game Notes: In just two years with the Spartans, coach Barret Kropf has turned the Spartans program from one that perennially struggling to make the playoffs to a league powerhouse…last year, Kropf led the Spartans to a then TWU best third place in the BCIHL standings and to the championship series for the first time in school history…including Fidgett, who leads the league in scoring with 37 points, TWU had three of the top six scorers in the BCIHL…PJ Buys has 35 points and Schmitt has 25 points…Victoria was two for eight on the power play while TWU was zero for three.