The SFU men’s hockey team played rivals Trinity Western University on October 10th. After a hard-fought playoff series last year which SFU won, the bad blood quickly resumed and resulting in a thrilling 5–4 SFU win.
The game started off evenly contested, with both teams not able to find the back of the net. Trinity Western fired a total of 15 shots, but couldn’t beat Jordan Liem, who made a total of 50 saves that night.
The second period is when the goals started pouring in, with a total of five scored in the period. Trinity Western opened the scoring at the 6:33 mark in the second. Jamey Kreller scored on a nice back door play to give the Spartans a 1–0 lead. However, SFU scored two in the space of half a minute, with new recruit Jared Babych on a breakaway and veteran Mike Sandor off a scramble in front. Babych added his second two minutes later, and Trinity Western got another one back to cap off a wild second period.
The period also featured 28 minutes of penalties, 22 of which came as a result of a large scrum.
With the score 3–2 heading into the final frame, Trinity Western tied it up halfway through the frame when Florian Niedermaier scored from a shot from the point after an SFU turnover. Sandor was able to get his second of the game just a few minutes later, and rookie Darnel St. Pierre scored what turned out to be the game-winner on the powerplay late in the third — and, also, his first goal for SFU.
Going forward, the Clan will most certainly have to improve upon is their team discipline. The Spartans had a total of six power plays on the night, but weren’t able to convert on a single one. As well, the amounts of shots given up from an SFU perspective is concerning. The team gave up a total of 54 shots on the night, with 24 of those coming in the second period alone.
The SFU men’s hockey team home games are played at Bill Copeland. Tickets are free to all SFU students. Go to sfuhockey.ca for their complete schedule.
