Men’s hockey team wins once on the road, and once at home
By Andrew Jow
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee
For the second straight weekend, the Simon Fraser University men’s hockey team played back-to-back games. This weekend’s schedule pitted them against the Thompson River University Wolfpack and the Eastern Washington University Eagles.
The first game against the Wolfpack was an absolute thriller. SFU raced out to a quick 3–0 lead.
Nick Sandor, Christopher Hoe, and Jono Ceci all netted a goal within the first nine minutes of the period.
TRU clawed its way back into the game when Duncan Schultz took advantage of a turnover in the
SFU zone and roofed it. The tally was a shorthanded goal, which was a running theme throughout the rest of the game. In the last minute of the first period, TRU brought the SFU’s lead to one as Joshua MacDonald tapped in the puck into the open net on a 2-on-0 opportunity.
SFU dominated the first 10 minutes of the second period by flying through the neutral zone and utilizing the dump and chase effectively. Their efforts paid off when Tony Oak’s sharp angle shot from the left boards left the mesh rippling. Thompson River scored their second short-handed goal minutes after Oak’s marker. Curtis Tolleno picked SFU defenseman Taylor Mah’s pocket, broke in all alone, and roofed it on Graham Gordon. Brenden Silvester restored SFU’s two-goal lead by battling through a mad scramble in front of the Wolfpack’s goal and poking the puck home.
As the third period got underway, TRU began its comeback by scoring yet another short-handed goal. This time it was Tyler Jackson who benefited from an SFU turnover, and he made no mistake. TRU began to apply further pressure, eventually tying the game at five, thanks to a Alessio Tomassetti’s rocket.
TRU was hardly finished celebrating Tomassetti’s equalizer when Sandor took the puck off the face-off and buried the go-ahead goal. Sandor’s effort was also short lived because 42 seconds later, TRU Tyler Jackson’s wrist shot from the point tied things up once again.
Three goals were scored in one minute of play, exemplifying the hectic nature of the whole game. When the buzzer sounded to mark the end of regulation the game was tied 6 –6, which meant the teams headed into sudden death overtime.
The five-minute period featured odd-man chances for both teams, but it solved nothing, so the game went into the shootout to decide the victor. Since each goalie had surrendered six goals in regulation, common sense would dictate the shootout would end quickly, but SFU’s Gordon and TRU’s Shane Mainprize shut their respective doors, keeping the skills contest scoreless after eight rounds. SFU’s Kale Wild brought this thriller of a game to an end, scoring the only goal in the shootout to give SFU the 7–6 victory.
After the frenetic game Friday night, SFU headed home to Bill Copeland Arena to face the Eastern Washington Eagles on Saturday. Having played their four previous games on the road, a home game for Simon Fraser was a welcome change.
SFU took the lead very early thanks to Trevor Milner. All he had to do was tap the puck into the wide-open cage after great puck movement by defensemen Hoe and Mah. The deficit did not deter the visitors one bit as they began to pepper Gordon with shots, but he was up to the task. With a minute left in the opening period, Milner buried his second goal by putting pressure on the EWU defense, which led to a turnover that he capitalized on. It was a spirited opening 20 minutes with great end-to-end action.
The quick pace continued in the second period. EWU had some good chances to cut into the SFU lead, but Gordon turned them all away. He made a sprawling pad save to stymie an Eagle’s 2-on-1 and turned away a late breakaway attempt. SFU’s special teams came up big in the second, not allowing EWU to reach the score sheet on two straight powerplay opportunities.
Taylor Piller extended SFU’s lead to 3–0 with 2:32 to go in the frame by burying a great pass from Colton Graf.
After the Eagles’ Zach Maxwell scored on an incredible coast-tocoast rush to start the third, SFU dominated the period. They were by far the faster team, and this speed was on display for their final two goals. Mah sniped a shot from the left sidewall after a quick retrieval of the puck in the offensive zone. Then, Graf roofed it top shelf after Ceci out hustled his man to feed him. The two goals gave SFU a 5–1 lead, ending the game and sending the fans home happy.
