LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans, who were hoping to secure a post-season spot, dropped a 2-1 decision to the No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds Saturday afternoon at the Langley Event Centre in Langley, B.C. With the loss, the Spartans end Canada West conference play with a record of 11-13-4 while the win improves UBC, who still have two games remaining, to 22-2-2.
The Spartans finish the season with 26 points. Which currently puts them in sixth spot in CW. TWU currently is three points ahead of seventh place Manitoba, with 23 points, who have two games remaining against the No. 4 ranked Alberta Pandas in Edmonton. UBC is currently in top spot in Canada West, three points ahead of second-place Alberta.
TWU's
Kate Fawcett (Tottenham, Ont.) made 22 saves in the Spartans' loss, while UBC's Kate Stuart made 23 saves in the win for the Thunderbirds.
AS IT HAPPENED
The game between cross-town rivals started with a scoreless first period with TWU outshooting UBC 11-7.
UBC's Sophia Gaskell opened the scoring, with her sixth of the season, with a power-play goal at 1:07 of the second period on a point shot through traffic. The Spartans finished the period outshooting the Thunderbirds 10-8, but trailed 1-0 on the scoreboard.
The Thunderbirds jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal to start the third period. UBC's Grace Elliot got her 10
th of the season when she deflected a point shot from Sophia Gaskell past TWU's Fawcett.
The Spartans cut the lead in half when
Brooklyn Anderson (Shellbrook, Sask.) got her 10
th of the season at 13:14. Anderson, who was sitting just outside the blue paint, converted a nice back-handed pass from
Chelsea Debusschere (Lloydminster, Alta.) past UBC"s Suart to make the score 2-1 with 6:46 remaining. The Spartans pulled Fawcett with 1:55 remaining but were unable to get the equalizer as UBC held on for the 2-1 win.
QUOTABLE
Jean Laforest – TWU Head Coach
"I'm extremely pleased with today's game, not pleased with losing though. Yesterday, for the first 20 minutes we were right on top of them, but we let the game get away from us and they dominated us getting 50 shots. So today, we talked about getting back on track with full effort from everybody. So win, lose, or draw, today's result was going to be based on how we can play."
"I thought the girls played great. That is the best team in the nation and we played them to a one-goal differential. It's tough, penalties cost us, and they scored two power-play goals. Five on five we beat them, but they beat us in the game of special teams."
On potential postseason
"Now it's down to two games, Manitoba at Alberta. If they split, we are fine. If Manitoba sweeps Alberta then we are out. Now it is in the hands of others, and we talked today about wanting it to be in our hands. The effort was there today to make that happen, but even when you do, sometimes things don't jive. But it was a great regular season. A big, big improvement from last year, and now we wait."
NOTABLE
• The Spartans are now 1-11 lifetime against the Thunderbirds and 1-9 in conference play.
• TWU (11, 9, 4) and UBC (7, 8, 9) each finished the game with 24 shots on goal.
• The Spartans finished the night 0-1 on the power play, while the Thunderbirds finished 2-4.
• TWU lost 3-0 to UBC last night in Vancouver.
UP NEXT
The Spartans have completed their Canada West regular season schedule and will now await the result of next weekend's Manitoba games to determine if they will be playing post-season hockey.
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.
-TW-
