Trinity Western University put together its most complete effort of the season, controlling the game’s tempo and cruising to a 3-1 win over the University of Victoria on Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
The Vikes opened the scoring midway through the opening frame, but a late first period marker from TWU’s PJ Buys sparked the Spartans offence and seemed to put the home side in the driver’s seat.
From there, TWU (3-2), who had outshot Victoria (2-3) by a 16-5 margin in the first period, scored twice in the second, with Jamey Kreller and Ryan Bakken, who also had an assist on Buys’ goal, each finding the back of the net to solidify the win. Aaron Ens scored the lone goal for the Vikes.
TWU goalie Silas Matthys stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced while Victoria’s Scott Legault was impressive in a losing cause, making 35 saves on 38 shots.
"It was a good 60 minutes,” said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. “We played 55 minutes last week and 60 this week, so I’m really proud of the guys for those kinds of efforts. It’s hard to single out a couple of guys, because everyone was solid. But, if you look at the scoresheet, Bakken had a good night. Our top line is doing what they need to do. I thought (Dawson) Sawatzky got his feet going and created some speed. Silas did his job in the net."
"We were very happy with how disciplined we were. There were a few opportunities there where it could have got uglier than it did and our guys were able to pull back and not let it get carried away.”
Despite the Spartans controlling the pace of play throughout the first period, Victoria’s Enns opened the scoring on the power play with his second of the season just before the midway point.
With TWU pressing, Buys broke through late in the period when he was the beneficiary of an end-to-end rush by defenceman Bakken. The Spartans blueliner weaved his way through the Vikes defence before centering the puck to Buys who knocked it home from in tight.
Kreller doubled TWU’s lead when he one-touched a feed from Andrew Wheeler in the slot, finding the back of the net on the power play early in the middle stanza. With 11:40 to play, Bakken buried an insurance marker when he wristed a shot from the slot past Legault with the man advantage.
In the third period, TWU outshot Victoria 12-7 and held the Vikes without much in the way of quality scoring chances.
The Spartans have next week off before returning to action Nov. 6 when they will host Eastern Washington at 7 p.m. at the LEC.
Game Notes: TWU was 2/5 on the power play while Victoria was 1/6…Mattias Schmitt picked up one assist to improve his point-streak to five games…Schmitt now has three goals and five assists in five games.
VICTORIA
SIMON FRASER
VANCOUVER ISLAN.
LOGAN LAKE
OKANAGAN
