LANGLEY, B.C. – The Trinity Western Spartans fell 6-3 to the Regina Cougars at the George Preston Recreation Centre on Saturday.
 
The Spartans (0-8-0) conceded to the Cougars (5-5-0) in the middle portion of the game. With the Spartans starting to show signs of life at the end of the game with goals from Aidan Steinke (St. Albert, Alta.), Michael Spafford (Saskatoon), and Kylor Wall (Edmonton).
 
First-year defenceman Jake Jurgeneit (Ottawa) led the Spartans in scoring on the night, assisting on both Wall and Steinke's goals in the third period.
 
Regina had another strong night from Turner Ripplinger. The second-year forward added a goal and an assist to his tally for the weekend, taking home a weekend-high of five points across the two part series between the Spartans and the Cougars.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The first period of play saw the Spartans come out firing. With desperation setting in as the team searched for their first victory in Canada West, TWU outshot Regina 8-3 through the first five minutes of play. Although the Spartans put forth a valiant effort in trying to stifle the Cougars, it was the road team who struck first as Ben Duperrault ripped a power play goal home.
 
The second period saw the Cougars continue to take control of the game as Ripplinger potted his second goal of the weekend on another power play. Regina added their first even-strength goal of Saturday's game soon after to put the Spartans at a 3-0 deficit. Although the ice was heavily tilted in favour of the visiting Cougars, first-year forward Michael Spafford edged the puck past Regina goaltender Curtis Meger 35 second after the Cougars scored their third. With the Spartans clinging to Spafford's goal for hope, Tanner Nagel silenced the home crowd at the George Preston Recreation Centre to score the third goal over the span of a 1:04 stretch.
 
With the second period ending in unfortunate circumstances for the Spartans, the misfortunes of the home team continued as the Cougars brought the score to 5-1 after another goal 54 seconds into the final period. The fifth goal of the game lit a fire under the Spartans as they proceeded to hem the Cougars into their defensive zone for a majority of the third period. Aidan Steinke wrestled the puck into the net off a rebounding shot form Jake Jurgeneit, then Kylor Wall put one home from the point to cut TWU's deficit in half. With the Spartans still putting a significant amount of pressure on the Cougars, Conner Chaulk ended all hopes with a goal halfway through the third period. Chaulk's goal was the final dagger as the Cougars rolled onwards to win their fifth game of the season.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Barret Kropf
"It's hard. We had some good momentum which led to a penalty we had to kill, then they scored right after we killed it. That sucked the life out of us. Just when we made it 5-3, we got some momentum again which led to a tough call. It is really frustrating that we're not getting the bounces right now with the amount of posts we hit and wide open looks that caught a stick.
 
"That is the most shots we've had this season, so there are some good things to build on on top of some guys getting their first goals. The guys are pretty deflated and bummed out that it's another loss. We're just trying to make sure the guys understand that this is a process. It takes 60 minutes of work, not these spurts throughout the game. We had some really good plays tonight, but we just didn't have the confidence. We'll get it figured out, but it's going to take some time.
 
"We'll take it for what it is, the guys are learning. The moment we stop learning is the moment we get ourselves in trouble, so we just need to take the positives out of these games.
 
"We'll get ready for MacEwan."
 
NOTABLE

• Since going four games without scoring a goal, the Spartans have now tallied eight goals in their last three outings.

 
UP NEXT
The Spartans come home to challenge the MacEwan Griffins (2-6-0) at the Langley Events Centre for a two-game series on Nov. 26^th and 27^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-