FEBRUARY 15, 2014 — KAMLOOPS, B.C. — The Selkirk College Men’s Hockey program fell behind early but finished strong on Saturday night in Kamloops, topping Thompson Rivers University 3-2 in a shootout to keep alive their hopes for another first place finish in the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League.
Former Selkirk forward Travis Herlein took advantage of a slow road start from the Saints, scoring twice in a span of 4:51 in the first period to give the WolfPack an early 2-0 lead. But the Saints rebounded before intermission, as Thomas Hardy took a slick pass from Mason Spear and beat TRU goaltender Mark Menicucci inside the far post to pull the visitors within one.
Selkirk took control in the second period but were unable to even the score until Logan Proulx was sprung for a breakaway by linemate Jackson Garrett and blew a wrist shot past the glove of the WolfPack netminder. But that was the last time that the Saints would get the better of Menicucci during regulation, as the Surrey, BC product went on to make a number of sensational saves during the second and third periods.
Following a scoreless overtime frame, Saints netminder Chris Hurry stopped all three WolfPack shootout attempts before Darnell Dyck beat Menicucci on a backhand deke to win the game and give Selkirk a much-needed two points.
“It took us some time to start competing in the defensive zone tonight and we put ourselves in a hole because of that,” says Saints head coach Jeff Dubois. “But we have a lot of confidence in our offence to bring us back those types of situations, and I thought we did the things we needed to in order to win in the second and third periods. (Mark) Menicucci was outstanding in goal for TRU and made some huge saves late in the game and overtime, so you have to tip your hat to him. It was the second night in a row where we had 50+ shots on goal and didn’t end up with a whole lot to show for it, but it was good to see us battle through that in both games and pick up two important wins.”
The victory sets up a huge game on Saturday night when the Saints will host Simon Fraser University. Selkirk currently trails the Clan by two points for first place in the BCIHL standings, but they are assured of overtaking their Lower Mainland rivals with three straight wins to close out the regular season. Game time is set for 7:30 PM at the Castlegar Recreation Complex.
GAME NOTES: With his second period goal, Proulx extended his season-long points streak to 21 games.
FEBRUARY 14, 2014 — CASTLEGAR, B.C. — The Selkirk College Men’s Hockey program seemed to be able to do everything but finish their scoring chances on Friday night, as Trinity Western netminder Silas Matthys nearly stole points for his team in an eventual 4-1 win for the Saints.
Logan Proulx extended his BCIHL season-long points streak to 20 games just five minutes into regulation when he banked the puck off the back of the Spartans’ netminder from behind the goal line to open the scoring. But TWU quickly replied with a strange goal of their own, as Christian Rodriguez’s long-range wrist shot bounced high in the air off the end of Chris Hurry’s goal stick before landing in the Selkirk net.
Less than two minutes later, Cody Fidgett put the Saints back ahead when he curled off the side board and beat Matthys with a high shot over the glove. But after a flurry of three goals in 4:22, the score remained 2-1 for the hosts until midway through the third period, primarily because of some outstanding goaltending from Matthys. The TWU netminder stopped all 23 shots that he faced in the second period, and made a number of fine saves in the third before Beau Taylor finally beat him with Selkirk’s 48th shot of the night on a Saints power-play.
The Saints did well in protecting their two-goal lead, and Connor McLaughlin put the finishing touches on the victory with an empty-net goal with 22 seconds remaining. Selkirk outshot TWU by a 46-11 margin over the game’s final 40 minutes and held a 63-20 shots advantage overall.
“It took us some time to find our top gear tonight, but the second and third periods were two of our best this season in terms of territorial dominance and generating shots and scoring chances,” says Saints head coach Jeff Dubois. “The performance from TWU’s goaltender was the best I’ve seen in any game we’ve played this season; he was lights out for most of the night. But we kept pushing and didn’t get away from making hard plays. All four forward lines and our full group of defencemen were rock solid tonight and moved the puck well. It’s certainly a performance we can build on.”
Proulx, Fidgett and McLaughlin each tallied two points on the night and now sit third, fourth and fifth respectively in BCIHL scoring. Meanwhile, Chris Hurry picked up the victory in goal and now leads all BCIHL netminder with 11 wins, a 1.85 goals-against average and .927 save-percentage.
