The Selkirk College Men’s Hockey team once again waited until the third period to bring their A-game in Saturday night’s home match-up against Simon Fraser University. But there was no stopping the Saints once they found their top gear in the final 10 minutes of regulation, as they netted four to top their closest rivals in the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League standings by a 5-2 score.
Down 2-1 halfway through the final period, Beau Taylor drew Selkirk level with a slick deflection off a Dylan Smith point shot. And Saints captain Jordan Wood took over from there, scoring two goals just 22 seconds apart to put his team up a pair with six minutes left before completing the hat trick with an empty net goal in the game’s closing moments.
Selkirk had opened the scoring 3:14 into the first period when Mason Spear banked a puck into the net off Clan netminder Graeme Gordon. But SFU leveled the game at 1-1 on a power-play marker from Kody Dhaliwal midway through the frame and went ahead 51 seconds into the middle period on another man-advantage goal, this time from Nick Sandor.
“SFU gave us all we could handle tonight, but the guys dug deep in the third period and got rewarded,” says Saints head coach Jeff Dubois. “Jordan has been the top player in our league this season bar-none, and he showed why again tonight with a couple big goals when we needed them. We also did a great job defensively limiting SFU’s scoring chances and our six defencemen as a unit played probably their best game of the season.”
Alex Sirard got the start in net for the Saints after returning from a minor injury and picked up his 10th win of the season with a 25-save effort. Gordon took the loss in net for the Clan despite making a number of key saves in the first and second periods. He allowed four goals on 31 shots and was relieved by Evan Kurylo after an altercation following Selkirk’s fourth goal.
Dylan Smith joined Wood in picking up three points on the night, as he assisted on a trio of third period goals.
With the win, Selkirk (16-1-0) moves five points ahead of SFU (13-4-1) in the BCIHL standings and possesses a game in hand. The Saints’ magic number for clinching first place for the regular season now stands at eight points with seven games remaining.
