Saints pull front-running TRU back by stopping Spartans 6-0
By The Nelson Daily Sports
Selkirk College Saints jumped into a three-way tie for top spot in B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League standings after posting a convincing 6-0 shutout over visiting rinity Western University Saturday at the Castlegar Recreation Complex.
The win maintains a perfect home record for the Saints in the 2013/14 season.
on Saturday, scoring a pair of goals in each period to top Trinity Western University by a 6-0 score at the Castlegar Recreation Complex.
TWU entered the game atop league standings with a 5-1 mark.
But Saints carried the play through most of the game and outshot their visitors by a finally tally of 53-23.
“We headed into tonight’s game off a couple of losses and our whole group came out prepared to dictate the speed and tempo of the game,” said Saints head coach Jeff Dubois.
“TWU is a hard-working team that can be very difficult to break down defensively, and even when you do they’ve got one of the top goalies in the league to stop the puck.”
“Tonight we made some skilled plays, but we were also tough to defend in how we moved our feet and cycled the puck,” Dubois added.
“It’s really how we need to play night in, night out to be successful on a consistent basis.”
Cody Fidgett opened the scoring midway through the first period when he converted a feed from Saints captain Logan Proulx and beat Spartans netminder Harry Fredeman high to the glove.
And the hosts doubled their lead 22 seconds later when Garrett Kucher created space down the right wing and fed a nifty cross ice pass to Darnell Dyck for a tap-in at the far post.
Fidgett and Dyck continued to do the damage offensively in the second period, as Fidgett scored on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Proulx and Jackson Garrett before Dyck fired a shot on a shorthanded rush to extend the lead to four.
Mason Spear beat Fredeman from in tight on a Saints’ power play in the third period and Dyck completed his hat trick with just 22 seconds remaining in regulation to cap the scoring.
Selkirk netminder Chris Hurry picked up his second shutout of the season, turning aside 23 shots. Fredeman, who entered the game with a 1.15 GAA and .966 SV%, allowed six goals on 53 shots but also made a number of outstanding saves that kept his team close over the first 40 minutes of action.
The victory was the fifth straight on home ice for the Saints to open the BCIHL regular season and the ninth overall dating back to preseason play in September.
Overall, the team has won 26 of 27 games on home ice since the start of the 2012/13 campaign.
“Getting wins at home is something that we pride ourselves on,” says Dubois. “We have great fans and the guys very much appreciate and feed off of the energy in the building on game nights. There’s certainly an extra motivation to perform when you’re receiving such tremendous support.”
The two teams return to action, this time for a doubleheader in the Fraser Valley.
The series opens Friday at 7 p.m. before the teams wrap up the set Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.
Both games can be viewed online at www.FastHockey.com.
The Saints’ next home game is on Saturday, November 16th against Simon Fraser University.
