Coming into this one, it looked like the matchup against Eastern Washington could be the perfect tonic for an SFU team that lost in shocking fashion the week before. Eastern Washington had let in 20 goals through four games, and had lost every single one of those.
What resulted was a total domination of the Eagles; it was SFU’s biggest win since beating the University of Victoria on October 18, 2013 10–0, and the most the team has scored in a game since last February, when they scored 10 on Trinity Western.
“We were waiting for that for the last three years to be perfectly honest,” said head coach Mark Coletta after the game. “Tom [Spencer] and Jim [Camazzola] both mentioned it, we were waiting for a breakout performance. Ten goals is great, and I thought the boys in the first period really played well. There was a lot of jump, lot of energy, and I thought that was better than the 10 goals.”
SFU got off to a flying start, scoring five in the first period, and all from different goal scorers. The Clan also chased starter Tyler O’Donnell from the net, after he let in four goals on only nine shots.
“I think it was just the guys figuring it out,” said Coletta on the team’s quick start to the game. “Last week, we had a decent game, I guess until the end — it was just lacklustre. We had real progress in the Alaska games, and then we kind of tailed off. I felt we needed to find something to motivate us, and the loss did motivate us.”
The second period belonged to Mitch Crisanti. The second-year player from North Vancouver scored a hat trick in the period, and the only thing not making it a natural hat trick was a Darnel St. Pierre goal. Crisanti now has five goals this season; he only scored two all of last year.
“I just got lucky on the first one there, it kind of slipped through him,” said Crisanti on his hat trick. “From there, I just kind of felt good and they just seemed to go in.”
“We’ve been pushing for Mitch to be a goal scorer,” Coletta remarked. “That’s what he is, he was that in junior. He’s a big, great skating, free-wheeling kind of player. We just got to get him to do those little things defensively and the goals will take care of itself.”
As expected with a 9–1 lead after two, things got a bit physical. A total of four game misconducts were handed out in the final frame, most of them from a brawl that happened at the 10-minute mark. It was the second straight game with this sort of stuff in the third, and it’s something the team as a whole has to work on.
“I think we did manage it the best we could,” said Coletta on the emotions of his team. “I think there’s a couple of guys who have to make sure they manage it and we’ll address that internally. I don’t like to see that, [that] barbaric garbage stuff. A good hit and an isolated fight is sometimes involved but the little melees and the junk in front of the net, we’ll address it. Our guy was one of those guys and we’ll have to make sure he is held accountable because I don’t like it.”
With SFU set to face a stiffer test for the next three games, 10 goals will probably not be in the cards. However, it provides the Clan with a good shot of confidence heading into those contests.
Next up: SFU takes on the University of Victoria at home Saturday. It will be the first game against former NHLer Patrick Holland, a former draft pick of the Calgary Flames and who played five games for the Montreal Canadiens in the 2013–14 season. So far this season, he’s averaged a goal every game and has nine points.
“Just be tight,” said Coletta on how to shut down Holland. “I’m sure he’s a good hockey player, he didn’t get 100 points in the WHL [Western Hockey League] for nothing, but it’s no different than our guys. We just have to be able to match whatever he brings.”
