LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western continued their home-opening weekend at the George Preston Recreation Centre on Saturday, losing 4-0 to Mount Royal.
 
The Spartans (0-4-0) were a tougher out for their Canada West opponent, MRU (3-1-0) who excelled on the power play in Saturday's game.

It was another game script that was ruled by special teams on Saturday as the MRU Cougars were stellar on the power play, scoring two of their three markers on the man-advantage. The Spartans, who had stopped six of seven MRU power plays in Saturday's game, had no answers for the Cougars as they snapped the puck around in TWU's defensive zone.
 
MRU struck twice in the first period as Bradley Kennedy connected with Ryley Lindgren and Riley Sawchuk on the power play to put the Spartans at odds early.
 
Logan Casavant (Melfort, Sask.) made a series of flashy plays throughout the game to draw penalties and get to the MRU net. Although Casavant's efforts were well-worked, MRU goaltender Riley Morris could not be stopped. Casavant nearly potted one for the Spartans with four minutes remaining, but the third-year forward narrowly missed on a backhand attempt that missed wide after he had beaten Morris.

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Soon after Casavant's chance, fellow third-year forward Jordan Bogress (Ladner, B.C.) broke free to put the Spartans on a two-on-one break. Bogress faked a pass, forcing the MRU defenceman to bite, but couldn't put it home as Riley Morris cruised to his second shutout of the weekend.
 
MRU forward Riley Sawchuk capped off the game with his fourth goal of the weekend. Sawchuk scored with two minutes remaining to bring the game to a 4-0 close in favour of the visiting Cougars.

NOTABLE

• Isaac LaBelle (Saskatoon) was a major factor for the Spartans again, stopping 46 of 50 total shots saved. LaBelle, who wasn't touted to start for the Spartans in the 2021-22 season, could certainly take the reins of the position if his play keeps up.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Barret Kropf
"I'm super proud of the guys. It was a 60 minute effort we haven't had all season, so I'm glad the guys recovered well from yesterday. I'm happy they didn't roll over. Everyone had that fight in their eye. This was one of the better games I've seen us play.
 
"When we play that hard there is a lot to build on. We made a few mistakes here and there and they still had four goals, so we still have work to do, but the effort was still there.
 
"We changed our system a little bit and the guys stuck to it. Isaac LaBelle played great, making some big stops to give the guys some confidence. We're doing the hard things: blocking shots and taking hits to make plays. A team that has given up won't be doing those things, so we have a lot of opportunity moving forward."

UP NEXT
After a bye-week, the Spartans will go to Saskatoon to play no. 2 ranked Saskatchewan (1-0) at the Merlis Belsher Place on Nov. 12^th, and Nov. 13^th.

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.

-TW-