First place race stays close as Spartans top Simon Fraser on home ice

Trinity Western University rode the strong play of netminder Silas Matthys and the timely scoring of Evan Last en route to a 3-1 victory over Simon Fraser University on Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

Matthys made 34 saves to tally his 30th career win, passing former Simon Fraser goalie Andrew Parent for top spot on the all-time list, while Last scored once and picked up three points in the contest. 

The Spartans' Stefan Gonzales and Last both scored first period goals, while Jarrett Fontaine added an empty-netter for TWU (7-2-0-0). Jacob Mills also had two assists on the night.

SFU’s Tyler Basham scored the lone goal for the Clan (7-2-0-1) while Jordan Liem made 25 saves in the loss.

The Spartans were one for three on the power play, while TWU’s penalty kill was perfect holding the Clan off the scoresheet on three opportunities.

“I think there was a lot of anticipation that it was going to be a big game and I think it was,” Kropf said. “It was a great back and forth contest. Our special teams were really good tonight. Chris Trendall does a great job with our guys and spends so much time on the penalty kill and breaking it down for them. All they need to do is put in an effort and we saw that tonight."

“We had some key plays in the third period. Brett Wur probably blocked five shots in the last 10 minutes and Riley Schmidt had a great back check that took away a great scoring chance. We took care of things defensively and for Silas to get the win to break the record was a memorable way to do it.”

The game was the first regular season meeting between SFU and TWU. They played one game against each other in the preseason with TWU winning 6-1.

Gonzales opened the scoring on the power play at 6:20 of the first period, whipping a shot past Liem off the left wing. Basham responded with just over four minutes left in the period, but Last, who was recently named the BCIHL’s Rookie of the Month for October, put TWU back up 1:25 later when he tallied his fifth goal of the year.

The game remained at 2-1 until Fontaine put the victory on ice with the empty-netter.

Game Notes: The last time SFU and TWU played a meaningful game was in last year’s playoffs, when the Spartans disposed of the Clan with a two-game series sweep in the BCIHL semifinals. The Spartans won 6-3 on the road before capping the series with a 5-4 overtime win at home. Last year, in the regular season, SFU had the Spartans number, winning five of the six games they played. TWU’s only regular season win last year against SFU was a 3-2 victory Nov. 14 at home.