LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans opened the game well with two early goals, but the Calgary Dinos responded with five straight goals to defeat the Spartans 5-2 Saturday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the Spartans to 2-13-0-1, while the win moves the Dinos to 14-3-1-0.
 
TWU first-year goalie Leon Sommer (Linz, Austria) made 41 saves in the loss, while Calgary's Carl Tetachuk made 19 saves to earn the victory.  
 
Fourth-year forward Tanner Hopps (North Delta, B.C.) and second-year defenseman Adam Oates (Calgary, Alta.) got the goals for the Spartans, while Connor Horning and Jaeger White each scored twice, with Jake Poole adding the lone marker for the Dinos.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans opened the scoring with Oates finding the net just over a minute into the game. TWU third-year forward Jeremy Klessens (Red Deer, Alta.) won the draw back to Oates at the blue line, where his shot from the blue line deflected off of the traffic in front of the net and past Tetachuk to give TWU the 1-0 lead.
 
Just over two and a half minutes later, 3:38, TWU's Hopps gave the Spartans a two goal lead. Hopps broke into the Calgary zone found space up the right side, which he took all the way to the Dinos net. Hopps then faked to the middle and then brought the puck back to the near post to put TWU up 2-0.
 
At 15:31 Calgary cut the lead in half. The Dinos Dylan Anderson took a shot from the right side of the slot which was blocked by the Spartans defence. The puck went off to the right to a waiting Gricius who easily beat Sommer, who was expecting the shot to go to the far post, to make the score 2-1 for the Spartans.
 
The Dinos' Poole tied the game at 17:51 when he converted a rebound from Colson Gengenbach to make it 2-2 heading into the first intermission.
 
Calgary's White got the game winner for the Dinos on the power play at 7:03 of the second period. Zach Wytinck started the scoring play with a shot from the point. Adam Kydd got the rebounds on the right side of the net and sent the pass to a waiting White in the middle of the slot.
 
White made it back-to-back goals and got the insurance goal for the Dinos at 14:46 of the final frame. White went give-and-go with Riley Stotts to get open between the two circles where he found the lower left side of the Spartans net to put Calgary up 4-2.
 
Calgary's Gricius got the empty net goal at 18:48 to clinch the game for the Dinos, 5-2.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben Walter
""I'm definitely happy with our first period compared to last night. I thought we did a lot of good things tonight and we found ourselves in a game in the third period with a chance to win it. I told the guys that this is progress for this group, but it's hard to realize that in the moment when you don't get the results. I'm proud of the guys, especially with the injuries we have and having some guys out."
 
"We're definitely on the right track and we're moving in the right direction. We're finding our identity as a team and now it's about consistently playing that way for 60 minutes every game. Our players have bought into it and they see it. Against a good team like Calgary, it doesn't take much for them to capitalize and come out on the winning end, but at least we're there and we're fighting for it and battling for it."
 
NOTABLE

• TWU went 0/3 on the power play, while Calgary went 1/4.
• The Spartans are 0-8 lifetime against the Dinos.
• Last night the Spartans lost 4-2 to the Dinos at the Aldergrove Community Arena.

 
UP NEXT
The Spartans will be off for the Christmas break, but will return to play On January 5-6 against the Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton, Alta. The games are scheduled for 7 p.m. (MT) starts 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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
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