Selkirk College saw its perfect regular season record and B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League-record win streak snapped on Friday night to a hard-working Trinity Western University squad that took an early lead and held on late in a 2-1 victory over the Saints.
The Spartans opened the scoring midway through the opening period when Matthew Ius intercepted a breakout pass and found Cody Stephenson driving to the net for a tip-in goal. The visitors doubled their lead late in the second when Trevor Beaupre poked home a rebound with just a second remaining on a TWU power-play to send the Saints to the dressing room down a pair.
Connor McLaughlin brought Selkirk within one early in the third period after linemate Scott Swiston found him alone in the slot, and the Saints continued to press for an equalizer but were turned away time and time again by Spartans netminder Tim Zwiers, who made 47 saves on the night.
"We came out slow tonight, gave up a pair of goals directly off turnovers and couldn't generate the offensive chances that we needed to get back in the game," says Saints head coach Jeff Dubois. "TWU battled hard all night and took full advantage of a couple of mental errors on our part. Hopefully we'll take some hard lessons from tonight and come back with a strong effort on Sunday."
Selkirk travels to Eastern Washington on Sunday for a 3:00 PM faceoff.