On Saturday October 17, the SFU hockey team played their home opener against Eastern Washington University in front of a packed house at Bill Copeland Sports Centre. Unfortunately, a promising first period was the best that the Clan could muster. Four straight EWU goals put this game out of reach early in the third, and the Clan ended up losing 5–3.

“Very poor performance by the guys in red,” said Head Coach Mark Coletta after the game. “We’re going to have to take a long look in the mirror and figure out what we come back with on Monday. I think it was a lack of effort, and hopefully we can turn it around.”

    The game started off with last year’s leading scorer Beau Walker generating an early chance with his speed. It wasn’t the last the Clan defence saw from him on the night, as he was a threat whenever he touched the puck. “He’s a great hockey player, and he’s going to find his spots,” Coletta reflected after the game. “He did that tonight.”

Eastern Washington got the first goal of the game, courtesy of Trevor Zakrajsek. After killing off a double minor for high-sticking, SFU tied the game up with Tyler Basham snapping a low shot past the goalie. Mike Sandor almost gave SFU the lead, but after the first period the score was tied at one.

“We’re going to have to take a long look in the mirror.”

The wheels started to fall off in the second period. After SFU had a couple of great chances, EWU took the lead when Brett Matthews buried the rebound in front of Liem. SFU went down the ice after the faceoff but and scored, but the goal was disallowed — the referee ruled that the puck was kicked in. That proved to be a crucial decision, as later on in the powerplay EWU player Jesse Collins scored to make it a two-goal game.

Beau Walker added a shorthanded goal near the end of the period to make it 4–1. SFU was badly outshot in the period; they only put four on target, compared to EWU’s 13.

The third period wasn’t much better. Walker added his second of the game to put the win out of reach. SFU were able to get two near the end of the period, which capped off a good stretch of play for the Clan — but it was too little too late, and the final score was 5–3 for EWU.

One thing the Clan needs to work on is their discipline. At several points during the game, it was an SFU parade to the penalty box. A total of 38 penalty minutes were called against SFU, with 14 alone called against defenceman Darnel St. Pierre.

“That was a focus point all week: ‘Stay out of the box,’” said Coletta after the game. “Obviously the message didn’t get across. We’ll have to figure out a different way, perhaps internal discipline, to keep guys out of the box. You’re never going to win hockey games when you’ve got 20, 30 minutes’ worth of penalties.

“Overall, we just make sure we’re sticking to our systems,” he added. “The guys will get better. It’s one game out of 24.”