By Derek Kaye,
Castlegar News contributor
It was an exciting game of hockey at the Castlegar Complex Friday night as the Selkirk Saints opened the final series in the BCHIL play-offs with a 6-1 win over Langley's Trinity Western University Spartans.
The Spartans have an outstanding goalie from Switzerland, Silas Matthys who has put up successful blockades against the Saints offence in regular season play resulting in many close games. But on this night the Saints offence was domineering, positioning players in the right place at the right time; capitalizing on breakaways and otherwise weakening Silas Matthys' effectiveness. The result was six goals for the Saints, including three in the first period and a hat-trick for Australian veteran Beau Taylor.
In the Saints end goalie Chris Hurry, league recipient for the Top Goaltender award made the most of his talents, limiting the Spartans to only one goal in the second period by Grange Gordon.
The game opened with Saints' Thomas Hardy scoring just over five minutes in assisted by Beau Taylor and Ryan Procyshyn. Stefan Virtanen and Beau Taylor sank two more for the Saints in the last eight minutes of play in the first. The Saints knew they had broken Matthys' grip on the puck.
Selkirk's Darnell Dyck scored in the second period on a breakaway and Beau Taylor added his second of the night with less than two minutes left in the frame.
The third period saw a tighter play by the Spartans, but Hurry was unbeatable, including as he put it, "the penalty shot, thank God he missed the net, a little wide ... I think I got the net covered at least that's what I got to say."
Beau Taylor scored the only goal of the third period on a power play and gave the Saints the sixth goal of the night to give the Spartans a first game bruising. With tonight's game (Mar. 15), again at the Complex, the Saints could score their second straight league championship.
"The Trinity Western goalie has been on a tear and has been almost unbeatable going into the game," said Saints coach Jeff Dubois after game one. "To get three in the first period I think was a momentum boost for us; getting a lead, and then in the second and the third we kept it up. Now we are only one game away from what has been the goal all season."
Puck drop at the Castlegar Complex is at 7:30 tonight.