LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western fell 3-2 to MacEwan on Saturday at the George Preston Arena.
TWU's goals were scored by
Jeremy Klessens (Red Deer, Alta.) and Tanner Hopps (North Delta, B.C.) – who totalled three goals on the weekend.
The Spartans (1-8-1) were unable to establish a lead throughout the entire game as an eventual 3-1 lead from the Griffins (5-5-0) iced the game.
Raphael Audet (Rimouski, Que.) was strong once again, stopping 20 of 23 shots for his second loss of the season while MacEwan goaltender Ashton Abel won his fifth of the year, stopping 25 of TWU's 27 chances.
AS IT HAPPENED
A scoreless first period ended with nine shots faced for each goaltender.
GMU forward Jordan Taupert got the Griffins going early with a power-play marker 2:24 into second period. The Spartans got caught on a man disadvantage soon after, surrendering a Daniel Baker power-play goal at the 4:33 mark. Hopps intervened in the MacEwan surge, scoring TWU's first goal of the night at the 8:17 mark, but the Griffins ended the period at a 3-1 advantage courtesy of a Marc Pasemko goal.
Klessens scored the lone goal of the third period (8:17), but the Spartans were unable to bag another as the game ended at a 3-2 line favouring the visiting Griffins.
QUOTABLE
Ben Walter – TWU Head Coach
"We gave ourselves a chance tonight. We kept going, and played our game. We had a lot of opportunities – especially in the third period – but they were able to bury their chances and that was the difference. I'm proud of the weekend overall. It's a big step for our team as we keep moving in the right direction. Now it's about continuing that work ethic that we have. We're going to continue to work together. We have four weekends left until the Christmas break, so we're going to push hard.
On Raphael Audet
"He's got a calm presence in the net. He worked hard in practice leading up to the weekend, and everyone was confident in what he was going to bring. To come in and give us a chance in his first three starts for us is huge. Very proud of him, and happy for him in what he's done."
NOTABLE
- Hopps (3G-1A) and Klessens (1G-3A) each totalled four points on the weekend.
- Audet holds a record of 1-2 in his career with a .911 save percentage.
- Spafford and Spadafora are tied for TWU's lead in scoring with seven points each.
UP NEXT
The Spartans take on UBC for a weekend split, starting with a road game at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (Nov. 10, 6:00 p.m.) before hosting at the George Preston Arena (Nov. 11, 7:15 p.m.).
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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