PJ Buys sparks Spartans offence in Castlegar to split series with Selkirk

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Trinity Western's PJ Buys scored twice in the third period to break a 3-3 deadlock, capping a three-goal night with the game-winner and the insurance marker as he helped the Spartans to a 5-3 win over Selkirk Saturday at the Castlegar Recreation Centre.

Less than three minutes into the second period, the Spartans (1-1) found themselves up 3-0 after goals by Buys, Brett Wur and Mattias Schmitt. However, Selkirk (1-1) responded with three goals of its own to even the contest early in the third period.

That set the table for Buys' heroics. The Spartans forward scored at 5:37 of the third to restore TWU's lead and then salted away the win with a goal inside the final minute.

After losing 6-3 on Friday night against Selkirk, the Spartans bounced back and put together a top to tail effort.

"The boys played an excellent 60 minutes," said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. "We're just making sure we are putting in full efforts because that's how it has to be all season. The parity in the league is phenomenal and so we have to make sure we're ready to compete for 60 minutes every night and tonight we did that."

The Spartans were outshot 33-22, but goalie Silas Matthys was once again up to the task and made 30 saves for the win. Selkirk's James Prigione made 17 saves in the loss. Selkirk relied entirely on its power play for its offense as the home side was three for eight on the night.

TWU was one for three with the man-advantage. Similar to Friday's game, the Spartans scored the first two goals of the game on Saturday, with Buys and Wur combining to give TWU a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. Early in the second, Schmitt put the Spartans up by three with a power play tally.

Selkirk's Nathan Browne sparked his team's offence and in less than 13 minutes of action, the Saints scored three times, with Ryon Sookro and Dallas Calvin also scoring.

With the game back on even terms early in the third period, Buys put TWU ahead with his second of the night, before burying the Saints for good late in the game with his hat-trick goal.

"Silas continues to play well and Murph (Blair Murphy) had some great leadership for us," Kropf said. "PJ's job is to score goals and he did that tonight. I thought we had some good efforts from some of our younger guys, like Riley Schmidt and Ryan Scott. Brett Wur did some great penalty killing along with Mattias (Schmitt). I could go through the whole lineup. It was a full team effort and every guy could get a shout out. "

The Spartans will now return home to host Simon Fraser Oct. 10 at the Langley Events Centre at 7 p.m.

Game Notes: TWU outshot Selkirk 10-9 in the first period, but the Saints outshot the Spartans 12-6 in each of the second and third periods…former Saints defenceman Lucas Hildebrand (Vancouver) suited up for his first game with TWU against his old teammates…Hildebrand played for the Saints for three years prior to joining the Spartans.