LANGLEY, British Columbia– The Trinity Western Spartans came up against a hot goalie Friday afternoon as the Spartans fell in overtime 3-2 to the visiting Regina Cougars at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the 13-12-2-0 in Canada West play, while the Cougars improve to 9-14-2-2.
 
With the loss, the Spartans now need help to keep their hopes of hosting a Canada West playoff game next week alive. Coming into this afternoon's contest, the Spartans were tied with the Alberta Pandas with 27 points each, with TWU holding the tiebreaker. TWU now needs Alberta to drop points in their games this weekend against the MacEwan Griffins.
 
Scoring for the Spartans were fourth-year Michela Naccarato (Edmonton, Alta.) with her second of the season and fifth-year forward Olivia Leier (Regina, Sask.) with her third of the season.
 
Scoring for the Cougars were Trinity Grove with her second of the season, Tessa Stewart with her fifth of the season, and Pippy Pritchard with the game winner and her fifth of the season.
 
Fifth-year goalie Kate Fawcett (Tottenham, Ont.) made 22 saves in the overtime loss, while Regina's Payton Schlamp made 44 saves in the Cougars' win.
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and Cougars will finish off Canada West conference play tomorrow at 3 p.m. (PT) at the Langley Events Centre and can be seen live on Canada West TV.
 
QUOTABLE
Peter Hay, TWU Head Coach
"Not the finish we wanted, however, when you get 46 shots on net, you expect to win, and unfortunately, we didn't bury the puck when we needed to. Regina had a good game plan against us and took our D out of the offensive game. We will continue to work on getting D involved for the next game, create more offence on our forecheck, and establish more goal-scoring opportunities. We now have to scoreboard watch Alberta and hope they lose a point or two as well, so we can keep fighting for second tomorrow. Either way, we care more about our process and playing the right way, and we will stay focused and hungry as we start also preparing for a playoff next week."
AS IT HAPPENED
The first period began with the Spartans and the Cougars exchanging penalties, impacting the flow of play. At 5:06, Bailey Fiala was penalized for head contact, giving Regina an early power play opportunity. Later, Cassidy Peters of Regina was given a two-minute penalty for boarding at 9:46, which the Spartans could not capitalize on. Regina finally broke through at 18:03 when Grove scored, assisted by Peters and Kaylee Dyer, giving the Cougars a 1–0 lead by the first intermission.
Trinity Western capitalized on the power play at 11:55 of the second period, when Naccarato scored her second goal of the season, assisted by Ella Boon and Kara Yackel. Regina quickly responded at 12:33, with Stewart finding the back of the net, assisted by Kaitlyn Gilroy and Quinn McLaren, to level the score. Both teams exchanged penalties throughout the remainder of the period, but neither team was able to capitalize with the Cougars leading 2-1 after 40 minutes.
 
In the third period, Leier scored a power-play goal at 4:00, assisted by Presleigh Giesbrecht, which marked her third goal of the season and pulled Trinity Western even with Regina. Despite penalties late in the period, neither team could break the deadlock, and the period concluded with the score tied 2–2.
Regina earned the win in overtime with Pritchard scoring, assisted by Makena Kushniruk, just 46 seconds in. This tally marked Pritchard's fifth goal of the season.
NOTABLE

• The Spartans outshot the Cougars 46-25.
• TWU was 1-6 on the power play, while Regina was 0-4.
• The Spartans are now 9-1-1-0 lifetime against the Regina Cougars. Entering this afternoon's contest, the Spartans had won nine straight against the Cougars.
• Last year, TWU swept Regina, winning 3-2 and 3-0 in Regina on November 1-2.
• Last week, the Spartans swept the MacEwan Griffins 4-0 and 5-2 on the road at the Downtown Community Arena in Edmonton, Alta.
• Last week, the Cougars were swept by the Manitoba Bisons, losing 2-0 and 6-1 at the Co-operators Centre in Regina, Sask.

 
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as in the NAIA in track and field and cross country and as an independent team in men's rugby and women's and men's disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 33 Canada West team championships.

About Trinity Western University
Recognized for quality, TWU has received seven consecutive A+ rankings for Quality of Teaching and Learning, holds three Canada Research Chairs, and wins national championships in U SPORTS. More importantly, lives are changed at TWU through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education. With a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree-completion programs, TWU equips leaders of character and competence to make a positive impact in the lives of others.  
 
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