LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans dropped a hard-fought 3-2 game to open the second half of the Canada West season against the No. 5 Alberta Pandas Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the Spartans to 6-10-0-1 for 13 points in Canada West, while the win moves Alberta is 15-2-1-1 for 32 points.

Third-year goalie Kate Fawcett (Tottenham, Ont.) made 29 saves in the Spartans' loss, while Halle Oswald made 22 saves in the Panda win.

Third-year blue-liner Jace Scott (Lloydminster, Alta.) and third-year forward Kyra McDonald (Inuik, N.T.) were the goal scorers for the Spartans, while Maia Ehmann, Abby Soyko and Madison Willan tallied for the Pandas.

AS IT HAPPENED
After a strong opening 17 minutes, a two minute laps late in the first period was all that it took to put the Spartans in a 2-0 hole heading into the first intermission. Alberta's Ehmann scored the opening goal at 17:51 and then with one second remaining in the period the Pandas Soyko made it 2-0 for Alberta after 20 minutes of play.

TWU's Scott cut the Alberta lead in half at 4:17 of the second period. But the Pandas once again found the back of the Spartans net late in the period when Willan regained the two goal lead for Alberta at 18:49.

The Spartans McDonald put TWU within one goal with her marker at 11:39 of the final period. TWU pushed down the stretch and pulled Fawcett with a minute to go, but were unable to get the equalizer as Alberta prevailed 3-2 to open the weekend series.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Peter Hay
"Other than the last minute of the 1st and 5 min in the second we played good enough to beat a very strong Pandas team. Another lesson on how important every shift is and that little details are game changing. Hopefully we can take the moral victory from a great 3rd into tomorrow to earn a split."

NOTABLE

• TWU was 0/1 on the power play, while Alberta was 0/2.
• The Pandas outshot the Spartans 32-24.
• The Spartans are 2-5 lifetime against the Pandas.
• In their last meeting on January 13-14, the Spartans lost 1-0, and 5-1 to the Pandas in Edmonton, Alta.

 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and the Pandas will finish the weekend series tomorrow afternoon at the Langley Events Centre. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m. (PT) 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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