The Trinity Western Spartans do not enjoy facing goaltender BJ Leach.
The Eastern Washington Eagles goaltender put on a puck-stopping clinic, making 44 saves in a 4-2 win over the host Spartans at the Langley Events Centre on Nov. 16.
Making the feat even more impressive is the fact the Eagles had a tough travel schedule.
“Hats off to Eastern, they had a terrible schedule as they played last night at home and had to get on a bus right after the game and drive all night to get here for the 2 p.m. start,” said Trinity Western coach Barrett Kropf.
“For them to come in here and their goalie to put on the performance that they did is a credit to their team.
“That is the second time that we have outshout them two to one and he has stolen four points for them.”
Coupled with a 9-6 loss the night before against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack — which was also at the LEC — and the Spartans have lost five straight games.
They have a record of 5-6-0.
The Spartans outshot the Eagles 46-29.
“They had guys diving and blocking shots; those are little things we have to do and our intensity has to get better,” Kropf said.
“Overall, we have to find a way to keep improving and over the next two weeks get to a point where we are competing with more urgency and playing as a team that competes for 60 minutes.”
Mattias Schmitt and Jamey Kreller had the Spartan goals while Elliott Martin, Jake Flynn, Tyler MOrt and Uriah Machuga had the Eagles scores.
Silas Matthys made 25 saves in the loss.
Against the WolfPack, Thompson Rivers set the tone early with three goals in a six-minute span and led 3-1 after one period and 8-4 after two.
The final score was 9-6 as the teams combined for seven power play goals.
JP Villeneuve and Andrew Wheeler each had two goals and an assist in the loss.
“We didn’t bring our ‘A’ game,” said Kropf.
“Like we have in the past, we gave them a few goals at the start and we were forced to play catch-up the rest of the way.”
Kreller and Cody Stephenson had the other Spartan goals.
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The Spartans play their final two games of the semester against SFU.
They will be in Burnaby on Nov. 23 before the two teams play the back end of the home-and-home series on Nov. 28 at the LEC.
