Box Score VANCOUVER – Trinity Western put up a valiant road effort, but the Spartans fell short against the high-powered UBC Thunderbirds, losing 7-2 Friday at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. TWU trailed by just two goals, 4-2, going to the third period but three goals in the final frame secured the win for UBC. 

The victory sees UBC improve their record to 13-5, while TWU drops to 2-17. 

Jarrett Penner (Saskatoon) and Kolby Johnson (Kerrobert, Sask.) scored for the Spartans, while Jordan Bogress (Ladner, B.C.), Spencer Gerth (Langley, B.C.) and Michael Spafford (Saskatoon) had assists. 

UBC's Matt Revel and Scott Atkinson scored twice apiece, while Jake Kryskim, Chris Douglas and Matthew Smith added singles. 

Isaac Labelle (Saskatoon) made 29 saves for TWU, while Riley Toth was good for 10 saves on 12 shots. 

AS IT HAPPENED
UBC opened the scoring just 1:01 into the first period when Kryski tallied an unassisted marker. The Thunderbirds doubled their lead before the period was six minutes old, with Atkinson scoring at 5:51 and Kryski nabbing the assist.

Penner cut the T-Birds lead in half, scoring his second goal of the year at 7:25 of the middle frame, but UBC's Douglas and Revel pushed the home sides advantage to three. However, with less than four minutes left in the period, Johnson got the Spartans back within two burying a shot from the slot after a nifty feed from Gerth for his third goal of the season.  

However, in the third period, UBC scored three times, with Revel and Atkinson each getting their second goals of the night and Smith potting his first as a T-Bird. 

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Barret Kropf 
"It was just a hard third period. We weren't creating our own bounces. They got puck bounces because they worked hard. They had a depleted lineup and they're one of the top teams in the country because they work hard. Unfortunately, weren't quite able to match that. We need to put in a full 60-minute performance and we didn't get that tonight. We just have to be better next week and find a way to come out with a different effort to wrap up the season." 

NOTABLE 
•    The Spartans will play UBC one more time (Feb. 19) to round out a Canada West regular season schedule that saw TWU face the T-Birds six times.
•    Johnson has scored two of the three goals TWU has tallied against UBC this year. 

UP NEXT 
The Spartans and UBC again next Saturday (Feb. 19) at 7 p.m. at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. The game will be TWU's final contest of the 2021-22 campaign. 

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-