LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans fell 2-0 to the UBC Thunderbirds in Canada West men's hockey action Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The Spartans finish their first semester of Canada West play with a 1-11, while the Thunderbirds, who lead Canada West, sit at 10-1-1.
 
The Spartans were solid on defence as they held the Thunderbirds off the scoresheet in their nine power play opportunities, unfortunately the Spartans were also unable to capitalize on the power play as they went 0-8.
 
UBC's Cyle McNabb and Chris Douglas got the two goals for the Thunderbirds in the opening period. Trinity Western's Talor Joseph made 41 saves in the loss, while UBC's Rylan Toth made 25 saves in the shutout win.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The Thunderbirds had a strong opening frame against the Spartans outshooting TWU 17-8 on their way to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. UBC forward Cyle McNabb opened the scoring at the 6:21 mark on an even strength goal. The Thunderbirds made it a two goal margin at 12:07 when Chris Douglas converted with assists to Matthew Smith and Connor McDonald. TWU had one power play opportunity in the final two minutes of the period, while UBC finished the period 0-2 with the man advantage.
 
The Spartans and Thunderbirds were both scoreless despite both teams having quality opportunities with the man advantage. UBC finished the period going 0-3 with the extra player, while TWU went 0-4, which included a five-on-three for a full 1:46 late in the period. The Thunderbirds finished the period with a 9-6 edge in shots-on-goal.
 
TWU's Adam Nobes almost got the Spartans on the scoresheet when he ripped a shot off the UBC cross bar with 9:21 remaining. With 17:49 remaining the Spartans went on the power play and pulled their goalie to get a two man advantage, but the Thunderbirds kept the Spartans off the scoresheet as they held on for the two goal win. UBC had four power play opportunities in the final period, while TWU had three. UBC finished the period outshooting TWU 17-11.
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans finished the night 0-8 on the power play, while UBC finished the night 0-9.
• UBC outshot TWU 43-25 on the night
• The Thunderbirds outscored the Spartans 6-0 in the two game series.
• UBC's Ryan Toth leads Canada West in GAA at 1.62 and save percentage at 0.941.
• Three Stars: 1 UBC Ryan Toth, 2 UBC Matt Revel, 3 TWU Talor Joseph

 
 QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Barret Kropf  
"At the end of the day that is the number two team in the country and we held them to a 2-0 game. But at the same time it is frustrating because I thought that we could have had a different outcome if we could have been more disciplined."
 
 "Our penalty kill was really good tonight. It had to be, but it just kills our momentum. With 15 minutes to go in the third we were starting to get momentum with a couple of good shifts."
 
"We are so agonizingly close to being in these game and it really comes back to some of our practice habits and our discipline, and the good news is that those are things that we can clean up."
 
"The break at Christmas is a gift to us. It helps us get healthy and it really helps our guys reset. We challenged them that we have to be more disciplined going into the New Year. .If you are not then things will change as we will have healthy bodies available to make the change."
 
Positives from the first semester.
 
"Our young players got a lot of opportunity to play this semester, which we weren't planning on. But when your top five players are injured it forces the next guys up to be in and it showed us what they can and cannot do. The exciting part is that now when we get healthy that there will be some interesting competition for roster spots come January."
 
"Our first semester in U SPORTS and there was a lot of learning. But I think we have some optimism going into the break and we are looking forward to the next semester."
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now be off for the Christmas break. It will be over six weeks before TWU returns to Canada West action on January 14 & 21 when they will travel to Calgary to take on the University of Calgary Dinos. Both matches can be seen live on Canadawest.tv.
 
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-