Saints rally past Clan to open up lead in BCIHL standings
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Selkirk Saints created a little more distance in B.C. Intercolligiate League standings by stopping Simon Fraser 5-2 in action Saturday in Castlegar.
The 16-1 Saints now lead the Clan by five points with a game in hand but only after scoring the win with a third-period surge.
The Saints’ magic number for clinching first place for the regular season now stands at eight points with seven games remaining.
“SFU gave us all we could handle tonight, but the guys dug deep in the third period and got rewarded,” said Saints head coach Jeff Dubois.
“Jordan has been the top player in our league this season bar-none, and he showed why again tonight with a couple big goals when we needed them.
“We also did a great job defensively limiting SFU’s scoring chances and our six defencemen as a unit played probably their best game of the season.”
Down 2-1 halfway through the final period, Beau Taylor drew Selkirk level with a slick deflection off a Dylan Smith point shot.
And Saints captain Jordan Wood took over from there, scoring two goals just 22 seconds apart to put his team up a pair with six minutes left before completing the hat trick with an empty net goal in the game’s closing moments.
Selkirk had opened the scoring 3:14 into the first period when Mason Spear banked a puck into the net off Clan netminder Graeme Gordon.
But SFU leveled the game at 1-1 on a power-play marker from Kody Dhaliwal midway through the frame and went ahead 51 seconds into the middle period on another man-advantage goal, this time from Nick Sandor.
Alex Sirard got the start in net for the Saints after returning from a minor injury and picked up his 10th win of the season with a 25-save effort. Gordon took the loss in net for the Clan despite making a number of key saves in the first and second periods. He allowed four goals on 31 shots and was relieved by Evan Kurylo after an altercation following Selkirk’s fourth goal.
Dylan Smith joined Wood in picking up three points on the night, as he assisted on a trio of third period goals.
