The UBC Thunderbirds knocked off the Trinity Western Spartans 3-1 to capture the inaugural Captains Cup.
The men’s hockey teams played on Saturday afternoon at UBC’s Father Bauer Arena.
Trailing 2-0 in the third period, TWU’s Brayden Brown took a pass from Jacob Mills to get the Spartans on the board with a power-play marker. But that would be as close as they would get as UBC’s Manraj Hayer scored a late short-handed marker to restore the two-goal advantage.
Carter Popoff scored UBC’s first two goals.
“Although we took a loss, I was really happy with our effort,” said Spartans coach Barret Kropf.
“Five-on-five, it was amazing hockey. The pace of the game, the physicality and the display of skill was outstanding.”
A string of penalties in the middle frame did disrupt the flow of the game.
“(But) coming through that, we saw how well our penalty kill can operate, but at the same time, it’s hard to keep everyone rolling on the bench.”
The Spartans were badly out-shot 41-15 with Silas Matthys making 38 saves in the defeat.
“Silas had a stellar performance and gave us an opportunity until the end to win the hockey game,” Kropf said.
TWU went 1-1 at the Captains Cup competition — which was organized by the Vancouver Giants — beating SFU 2-1 in the earlier game.
The Spartans kick off their BC Intercollegiate Hockey League season with road games against Victoria and Vancouver Island on Oct. 6 and 7.
