ALDERGROVE, B.C. – The Trinity Western Spartans men's hockey team defeated the Vancouver Island Mariners 6-5 at the Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre Saturday afternoon, earning their third consecutive victory to open the season.
 
Logan Casavant (Meflort, Sask.) registered two goals and an assist for TWU, while Brandon Potomak (Aldergrove, B.C.), Evan Last (Surrey, B.C.), Travis Verveda (Alix, Alta.) and Josh Bruce (Surrey, B.C.) also scored for the Spartans. 
 
With the win the Spartans improved to 3-0-0-0 to start the season, while the Mariners fall to 3-3-0-1 on the year. 
 
The Mariners offence was led by Brett Witala, who recorded a hat trick and added an assist in the loss. 
 
TWU opened the scoring just 1:37 into the game, as Potomak fired a Jordan Bogress (Ladner, B.C.) feed past Huber to make it 1-0.   

Just over five minutes later the Mariners responded on the powerplay, with Brett Witala scoring his first of the game with a wrister in the slot to make it 1-1. 
 
Last then responded for the Spartans, roofing a shot over the blocker of Huber to in close to regain the Spartans lead. 
 
With 4:52 left in the first period, Vancouver Island once again equalized on the powerplay, with Garrett Dunlop scoring to make it 2-2. 
 
Into the second period the Spartans got goals from Casavant and Verveda to stretch their lead to 4-2. Witala then scored his second powerplay marker of the game with 1:17 left in the second period to cut the Spartans lead to one. 
 
Witala then recorded his hat trick goal 1:41 into the third period, knotting the game back up at four. After Logan Casavant and Liam Cumberbirch traded goals midway through the period to make it 5-5, it was Josh Bruce playing hero with 8:22 remaining in the final frame. 
 
Spartans rookie Isaac LaBelle (Saskatoon, Sask.) made 35 saves to earn his first BCIHL victory, while Mariners goaltender Matt Huber made 39 saves for his third loss of the season.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Barret Kropf

"It was a tough turnaround, playing late last night and then early into the today, but that's something we should get used to heading into next year. Obviously there were a lot of goals scored today. Offensive hockey can be a great thing, but we pride ourselves in keeping the shots low and goals against down so there were a lot of nervous times there throughout the game today. 
 
"Throughout this weekend our guys had a great offensive outbreak, where we got depth scoring all throughout, so that's definitely something we can build on moving forward. We have a great group of guys here that are all willing to work hard, so I'm pretty excited to move forward into next week's games and get ready for Simon Fraser."

NOTABLE

• TWU's victory over Vancouver Island was their second of the season, bettering the Mariners 5-4 in overtime one week ago (Oct. 12). 
• The Spartans also bettered the Mariners in all eight of their matchups in 2018-19, holding a perfect 8-0 record including their BCIHL championship series sweep. 
• The Mariners came back from deficits all throughout the game, being down 1-0, 2-1, 4-1, and 5-4 in the game, before the Spartans sixth goal put it just out of reach.

 
NEXT UP
The Spartans are back in action Thursday (Oct. 24) as they play host to Simon Fraser at the Langley Events Centre. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
 
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) in men's hockey and as an independent team in men's rugby. The men's and women's hockey programs will begin playing in Canada West and U SPORTS in 2020-21. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 27 Canada West team championships and two BCIHL championships.
 
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