VICTORIA – Victoria's Jack Palmer scored with just over five minutes in the third period to help the Vikes to a 5-4 win over Trinity Western Friday at the Ian Stewart Complex.

Josiah Cockrill (Chilliwack, B.C.) scored his first goal as a Spartan to even the game 4-4 at 6:43 of the third period, but Palmer was the hero of the night, responding late to secure the win.

The Spartans (7-3-0-1) rallied from two goal deficits twice, falling behind 2-0 in the first period and 4-2 in the second period, but it wasn't quite enough on a night when Victoria (4-7-0-1) never trailed.

Along with Cockrill, TWU's Florian Niedermaier (Davos, Switzerland), Dirk de Waal (Lethbridge, Alta.) and Cody Stephenson (Aldergrove, B.C.) scored for the Spartans.

Beyond Palmer, Victoria got goals from Cameron Rowat, Bo Sigurdson, Luciano Somerville and Shawn Mueller. Aaron Ens and Mueller also each had two assists.

The Spartans Aaron Oakley (Richmond, B.C.) got his third start of the season and made 29 saves on 34 shots.

The Vikes Scott Legault stopped 30 of the 34 shots he faced.

"We came out flat," said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. "We know that Victoria is an incredibly hard-working team and they proved that tonight. They were very motivated and beat us to pucks and out-battled us early on and we didn't do enough to earn the victory. It's one of those things where we just have to hit the reset button and find a way to eliminate a lot of the turnovers and mistakes that really cost us the game. When we were under pressure, we coughed up the puck and that's not typical of us. We have to find ways to make those corrections. Not to take anything from UVIC. I thought they played a great game and were disciplined and they were able to find some success."

Rowat opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game before Sigurdson made it 2-0 at the midway point of the first period. The Spartans responded with two goals, Niedermaier and de Waal, in less than two minutes to tie the game 2-2, before Somerville put the Vikes up 3-2 with 2:01 left in the opening frame.

Mueller than put Victoria back up by two goals with 7:07 left in the second period.

Stephenson got TWU back within one goal before the period was out and then less than seven minutes into the third period, Cockrill knotted the game 4-4.

The teams will play in the second contest of the two-game series Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Ian Stewart Complex.

-TW-