LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans opened the 2024-25 preseason with a 5-2 loss to the UBC Thunderbirds Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C.
Scoring for TWU were second-year forward
Christian Lowe's (Port Moody, B.C.), and fourth-year forward
Luke Spadafora (Calgary, Alta.). Scoring for UBC were Ty Thorpe, Jack Wismer, Liam Kindree, Carson Latimer, and Jacob Wright.
TWU third-year goalie Raph Audet (Rimouski, PQ) made 37 saves in the Spartans' loss. While UBC's Brett Mirwald made 13 saves in the Thunderbird win.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now play back-to-back games against the Simon Fraser Red Leafs this Friday and Saturday night. Puck drop at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre in Burnaby, B.C. is set for 7 p.m. (PT) both nights.
QUOTABLE
Trinity Western Head Coach Ben Walters
"I think that for our first game against a Canada West opponent there were some encouraging things for our group. We were in position to win a game in the third period and had some good individual performances, so there is a lot to build on."
"We lost our focus at some key moments in the third and UBC capitalized. Raph Audet played an outstanding game in net for us as he always does.
Christian Lowe and
Jonathan Krahn gave us big games at centre, playing a lot of minutes. Lots to be excited about as our group continues to grow and look towards Oct 4."
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans led 1-0 after the second period on Lowe's goal at 3:50 of the second period.
UBC's Ty Thorpe tied the game 2:37 into the third period, but TWU regained the lead less than a minute and a half later (4:01) when Spadafora found the back of the UBC net. After UBC's Jack Wismer tied the game :50 after TWU's go ahead goal the Thunderbirds special teams took over. UBC's Liam Kindree scored a power play goal at 6:47, followed by a shorthanded goal by Carson Latimer at 16:04 to put the Thunderbirds up 4-2. An empty net goal by Jacob Wright made the final 5-2 for UBC.
NOTABLE
- TWU went 0-4 on the power play, while UBC went 1-3.
- The Thunderbirds outshot the Spartans 42-15 on the night.
- TWU finished with four penalties, while UBC finished with five.
- The Spartans are 0-21 lifetime against the Thunderbirds.
- The Spartans open Canada West conference play on October 4-5 when they will host the Mount Royal Cougars.
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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