A pair of comeback victories have the Trinity Western Spartans in top spot of the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League.
The Spartans beat the Selkirk Saints 5-3 on Oct. 24 and then pulled off another come-from-behind win 6-5 over the Victoria Vikes on Oct. 25. Both games were at the Langley Events Centre.
Despite getting the four points and leading the league with a 5-1-0-1 record, head coach Barret Kropf cautioned his team.
“We did not start well and the way the first period was going it took us awhile to start playing better hockey. But we played well for stretches in the first two periods and were able to grind out the third,” he said.
“We are getting lots of points as a team and individuals, but we can’t just expect to just play and we will get points.”
“We were sitting with the same record at this point last year, and we had some struggles after that. We are probably going to have one of our toughest weeks of practice to help us remain focused.”
TWU’s Silas Matthys, who replaced starter Nic Clark to start the third period, made 12 saves to earn the win, while Victoria’s Nick Babich made 35 saves in the loss. TWU’s Clark played the first 40 minutes and made 26 saves on the 31 shots he faced.
The Spartans trailed 2-0 less than two minutes in, but closed the first period with three goals. TWU led 5-4 midway through the third but Victoria tied it up prior to intermission.
“Nic made some good saves at the end of the second period to keep us tied, but we decided to change things up in the third with Silas and see how the guys would respond,” commented Kropf on his goalie change.
Cody Fidgett scored the game-winner 6:11 into the third.
Fidgett and PJ Buys each had a goal and two assists while Mattias Schmitt scored twice. Jamie Russell and Andrew Wheeler had the other goals.
Against Selkirk, the Spartans trailed 3-2 late in the second period before Florian Niedermaier tied things up. It was his second goal of the game.
Buys struck for the winner on a power play 5:02 into the third before Fidgett potted into the empty net.
Schmitt had the other TWU goal.
Mattys stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced.
“It was a great effort all around and we played well despite a few guys out of the lineup,” Kropf said.
“Everyone chipped in and there was no panic when we got down. We just kept playing and eventually earned the win.”
The Saints got goals from Mason Spear, Matt Martin and Ryan Edwards.
The Spartans largely shutdown the Saints top line of Darnell Dyck, Logan Proulx and Jackson Garrett as the trio was held to a combined two points after tallying 11 points in the Saints last outing.
“I thought the line of (Andrew) Wheeler, Florian Niedermaier and Brett Wur did a great job matching against their top line by just controlling the puck and keeping it in the offensive zone,” Kropf said.
“It was a great way to be effective as a checking line.”
The Spartans will look for a third straight win when they host Victoria on Oct. 31 at the LEC.
