By: Dylan Webb
After months of hard work, SFU hockey finally grabbed ahold of first place overall in the BCIHL standings (at least for now) with another huge win over the Vancouver Island University Mariners at Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Saturday night.
SFU defeated the Mariners 6–3. In contrast to the previous night’s game, where SFU went down 3–0 in the first period, this victory relied on opening the game with four straight unanswered goals. With these four goals, the Clan’s weekend scoring streak versus the Mariners went up to twelve unanswered across the weekend double-header. While VIU eventually broke through late in the second period, unfortunately for them, this was too little and too late to challenge the Clan’s weekend sweep of the visiting team.
The Clan were dominant from the drop of the puck, and the team was immediately rewarded for their hard work. Despite only outshooting their opponent by a slim margin by the end of the game (33–27) the Clan carried the play, spent a disproportionate amount of time in the offensive zone and, in general, demonstrated that when they play to their potential, they are one of the strongest teams in the league.
The first period saw only one goal and quite a bit of neutral-zone play as the Clan outshot VIU 12–6 and benefitted from Cole Plotnikoff’s second career BCIHL goal to give them a one-goal lead after one.
In the second and third, forwards Nicholas Holowko, Brendan Lamont, Mac Colasimone, Jaret Babych and defenseman Austina Adam all tallied multi-point nights as the Clan. Babych, striking for two goals in the second period with his signature laser beam of a shot, led the way in establishing the four-goal lead the Clan would carry into the third.
The third period saw the Clan become a little complacent in the context of a huge lead on the scoreboard, allowing the Mariners to outshoot them 17–9 and score three goals in the frame. However, despite a bit of overly relaxed play in the defensive zone, the offense continued to carry the Clan and smooth over any inconsistencies in the team. Regardless of this game’s outcome, SFU will have to work on minimizing or removing these inconsistencies and prove that they can play a consistent 60 minutes night in and night out.
Between the pipes, Michael Lenko secured his second win in as many nights and his third win of the season with a solid performance. Lenko has now started a majority of the games for SFU this season and looks to be in line for the starting position if he can keep giving the team a chance to win on a nightly basis.
“The team is really coming together in terms of chemistry and sacrificing for each other on a nightly basis,” said coach Mark Coletta on the topic of SFU’s weekend sweep of the visiting team.
Coletta emphasized that a key takeaway from the first month or so of the season was that the next step in developing a league-dominating Clan team was working on consistency. Looking ahead to their next game at the Langley Events Centre on Friday night, the Clan will certainly need to make a consistent effort if they want to break the perfect record of their main rival, the Trinity Western University Spartans.
The Clan will now use a week of practice to prepare for their upcoming game against the Spartans, who carry a 4–0 record into the matchup, which will now be a battle for first place in the league standings. Following the Friday night tilt, SFU will look ahead to a familiar two-game Vancouver Island roadtrip before an anomalous two-week break from league games that will give the team a chance to catch its breath, catch up on school work, and bask in the glow of their recent success while working hard to keep it up.
