Saints rock Eagles to move to within a point of top spot
The Selkirk College Saints rang up 17 goals on Eastern Washington netminders en route to a sweep of two B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League games.
The line of Beau Taylor, Connor McLaughlin and Scott Swiston did much of the damage for the Saints Saturday, combining for five goals and 11 points to spark the Saints to a convincing 10-1 shellacking in Cheney, Wash.
Friday, the Saints staked the Eagles to a 1-0 lead before roaring back to score seven straight to score a 7-1 victory in Castlegar.
“We played a full 60 minute effort (Saturday) and it seemed like everything was working offensively,” said Saints head coach Jeff Dubois.
“Beau Taylor went through a streak back in the fall where nothing was bouncing for him, but he’s been one of our best players so far in 2014. He along with Connor and Scott set the tone this weekend and everyone else jumped on board.”
McLaughlin and Darnell Dyck — on a power-play — put Selkirk ahead by two by the end of the first period and the Saints piled on with four more from Taylor, Swiston, Cody Fidgett and Colin Minardi in the second.
JR Strait scored Eastern’s lone goal on one of their eight opportunities with the man-advantage, but Selkirk continued to find the back of the net as the game wore on.
Taylor completed his hat trick with back-to-back goals early in the third period before Markus McCrea and Thomas Hardy scored late.
Saints captain Logan Proulx extended his season-long point streak to 17 games when he set up Taylor shorthanded with 13:29 remaining in the game.
Chris Hurry picked up his second straight win in goal, turning aside 18 shots. Derek Moser and BJ Leach split time in the loss.
“Chris has been outstanding over the past couple weekends,” said Dubois.
“We haven’t been giving up a ton of shots, but he’ll go a few minutes without much action and then make a big save when we need him to. He’s made some great strides and really captured the confidence of his teammates.”
Friday goal scorers included Colin Minardi, Connor McLaughlin, Stefan Gonzales, Beau Taylor, Scott Swiston, Logan Proulx and Connor Stephens.
The Saints’ record now sits at 13-3-1, which puts the team one point back of first place SFU.
Selkirk is off next weekend before hosting the University of Victoria on Saturday, February 8th at the Castlegar Recreation Complex.