LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans scored three third-period goals but saw their rally fall short as the Spartans dropped a 4-3 decision to the UBC Thunderbirds Friday night at the George Preston Arena in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the Spartans to 1-1 in pre-season play, while UBC improves to 2-0.

TWU rookie goalie Leon Sommer (Linz, Austria) made 37 saves in the loss, while UBC's Dorrin Luding made 21 saves to earn the win.

UBC took a 1-0 lead in the opening period with a goal from Sasha Mutala at 9:20. The Thunderbirds expanded the lead with two second-period goals by Liam Kindree at 7:36 and Jake Lee at 16:51 to take a 3-0 lead into the final period. UBC's Mutala got the eventual game-winner and his second of the night at 10:59 of the final period.

TWU's rally, with three goals in 2:28 minutes, began with second-year forward Mikol Sartor (Winnipeg, Man.) scoring a power-play goal at 17:01. Fourth-year defence Jesse Pomeroy (Prince George, B.C.) followed up 48 seconds later with another power-play goal at 17:49. Sartor got his second of the night at 19:29 on the power-play, to cut UBC's lead to one goal, 4-3, with 31 seconds remaining in the game.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben
"Fairly happy with how the game went, but definitely have lots to learn from the game. But we saw some good things. The biggest thing is that our guys didn't give up. They showed a lot of fight at the end and scored three goals with the goalie pulled to get within one goal and had a chance to possibly tie the game right at the end. So I'm proud of the effort they put in and proud of the way they battled to the end."
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans were 3-6 on the power play, while the Thunderbirds were 0-4.
• UBC outshot TWU 41-24.
• The Spartans are 0-15 against the Thunderbirds.
• Last season TWU was 0-4 in conference play against UBC. In their last home-and-away match-up, the Spartans lost 8-5 at home and 8-1 on the road.

UP NEXT
The Spartans will head to Vancouver for game two of the home-and-home tomorrow night. Puck drop at the Father David Bauer Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. PT. TWU opens Canada West conference play on Friday, October 6 when they will travel to Calgary to play the 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. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
-TW-