CALGARY – Playing in their first game of the season, Trinity Western lost 4-0 on the road against a Calgary Dinos side that is chasing history, having now won 26 straight Canada West contests. 

For the defending Canada West champion Dinos, the win ties the University of New Brunswick's 26-game run during their 2009-10 season for the longest win streak in U SPORTS history.

Rookie Leon Sommer (Linz, Austria) was big on the night for the Spartans, finishing the night with 39 saves in his U SPORTS debut.

The Dinos Carl Tetachuk was credited with 19 saves for his first shutout and second win of the year for Calgary.

Calgary got goals from Jake Gricius, Colson Gengenbach, Noah King and Riley Stotts.

Calgary moves to 3-0 on the year, outscoring their opponents 16-4 thus far this season. 

QUOTABLE
Ben Walter – Head Coach
"I'm very happy with our effort and I'm very happy with the fact that we didn't give up. We didn't stop playing our game. Obviously I'm not happy with the result, but we have a lot to go on and a lot to be thankful for with the way our guys played tonight. Leon Sommer was outstanding tonight for us. He gave us a chance and made some big saves and was steady. He was a big bright spot for us."

AS IT HAPPENED 
Trinity Western came out on the front foot early and owned four of the first five shots of the game after 10 minutes of play.

Calgary took control in the final 10 minutes of the first with nearly the entirety of that time spent with the Dinos on the attack. That finally paid off as Gricius netted his second of the season on the power play with just under four minutes to play in the first.

TWU nearly leveled things in the waning moments of the first, but Jarrett Penner's (Saskatoon) shot with two seconds left was hauled in by Tetachuk to thwart the chance.

The Dinos doubled their lead less than two minutes into the second on a snipe of a shot by Gengenbach. The third year took a feed from his own end and took on a pair of defenders before firing from just inside the zone for his second of the year to make it 2-0.

Calgary made it 3-0 less than three minutes into the third period. King took the puck just inside the blue line, calmly skated to the middle of the ice before ripping one from distance that found its way through a crowd and into the back of the net just 2:34 into the third.

The Spartans thought they finally solved Tetachuk with just over four minutes left in the third when Skyler Cameron (Nanaimo, B.C>) sent one far post that caromed off the frame but ricocheted into the pads of the Dinos goalkeeper.

Stotts added an empty netter with 2:17 left for his first goal and eighth point of the young season.

NOTABLE
•    The Spartans entered the 2023-24 Canada West season ranked ninth in the Canada West preseason coaches' poll, while came in ranked first. 
•    In their final meeting last season, the Dinos defeated the Spartans 5-2 at home at the Langley Events Centre.

UP NEXT
The Spartans and Dinos play the rematch Saturday at 3 p.m. (MT) at Father David Bauer Arena in Calgary.

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 and disc golf. 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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