VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Spartans
Jordyn Matthews (Okotoks, Alta.) got her first goal of the season 30 seconds into overtime to give Trinity Western a 3-2 win over the No. 2 ranked UBC Thunderbirds Thursday night at the George Preston Recreation Centre in Langley, B.C. The win improves TWU to 6-5-0, while the loss drops the Thunderbirds to 8-1-1.
The Spartans
Mabel Maltais (Edmonton) made 47 saves to earn the win, while the Thunderbirds Elise Hugens (Sherwood Park, Alta.) made 22 saves in the loss. Also scoring for TWU were
Olivia Leier (Regina, Sask.) and
Chelsea Debusschere (Lloydminster, Alta.), while UBC got goals from Rylind MacKinnon (Cranbrook, B.C.) and Kennesha Miswaggon (Cross Lake, Man.).
AS IT HAPPENED
After holding off the Thunderbirds on their first power play of the evening the Spartans Leier responded with her third goal of the season at 14:59 to give Trinity Western the early 1-0 lead. UBC finished the period with a 6-5 edge in total shots and were 0-2 on the power play.
UBC's MacKinnon tied the game with her second goal of the season at 5:32 of the second period. At 17:17 of the period the Thunderbirds took the lead on a goal by Miswaggon, her first of the season, to give UBC the 2-1 lead at the end of 40 minutes. UBC finished the period with a 9-2 edge in shots.
The Spartans Debusschere tied the game at 7:47 of the third period. Debusschere found open between the circles after the Spartans forecheck dug the puck out from behind the UBC net. Where Leier found the open Debusschere. UBC had a 16-7 edge in shots in the third period.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Jean Laforest
"Tonight is a very positive step forward for our program. Given the circumstances that we were down two regular players due to suspensions people had to step up and obviously they did. To that end our top end players played exceptional tonight. Mable played a great game in net, but more importantly we had a great effort from our third and fourth lines."
"All the way around it is probably the best game we have every played in my time. I can't say enough about the team effort tonight. But, playing a physical fast passed game with only five defence, I have to give credit where it is due. Our D core was really good tonight."
"Coming back and not panicking after giving up the two goals says a lot about the character and fight of our team. We talked about this being a great opportunity for us to solidify our program and ourselves. We used the term 'why not us'. If we play like this night in and night out we can make some noise in our conference."
NOTABLE
• The Spartans Amy Potomak (Calgary) finished the night with three assists. She currently sits second in the Canada West point's race with 17 points, 5g-12a.
• UBC finished the night outshooting TWU 22-15.
• The Spartans were 1-3 on the power play, while the Thunderbirds finished 0-4.
UP NEXT
The Spartans and T-Birds will take a day off before heading to Vancouver for the second game of their home-and-home weekend. Game times is set 3 p.m. and 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 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.
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