LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans dropped a hard fought 3-2 game to open the second half of the Canada West season against the No. 5 Alberta Pandas Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the Spartans to 6-10-0-1 for 13 points in Canada West, while the win moves Alberta is 15-2-1-1 for 32 points.
The win is the seventh-straight for the Pandas. The win did, however, end the Pandas shutout streak at six. Their 386:20 minutes marks the third longest shutout streak in Canada West history.
Third-year goalie Kate Fawcett (Tottenham, Ont.) made 29 saves in the Spartans' loss, while
Halle Oswald made 22 saves in the Panda win.
Third-year blue-liner Jace Scott (Lloydminster, Alta.) and third-year forward Kyra McDonald (Inuik, N.T.) were the goal scorers for the Spartans, while
Maia Ehmann,
Abby Soyko and
Madison Willan tallied for the Pandas.
AS IT HAPPENED
After a strong opening 17 minutes, a two minute laps late in the first period was all that it took to put the Spartans in a 2-0 hole heading into the first intermission. Alberta's Ehmann scored the opening goal at 17:51 and then with one second remaining in the period the Pandas Soyko made it 2-0 for Alberta after 20 minutes of play.
TWU's Scott cut the Alberta lead in half at 4:17 of the second period. But the Pandas once again found the back of the Spartans net late in the period when Willan regained the two goal lead for Alberta at 18:49.
The Spartans McDonald put TWU within one goal with her marker at 11:39 of the final period. TWU pushed down the stretch and pulled Fawcett with a minute to go, but were unable to get the equalizer as Alberta prevailed 3-2 to open the weekend series.
NOTABLE
· TWU was 0/1 on the power play, while Alberta was 0/2.
· The Pandas outshot the Spartans 32-24.
· The Spartans are 2-5 lifetime against the Pandas.
· In their last meeting on January 13-14, the Spartans lost 1-0, and 5-1 to the Pandas in Edmonton, Alta.
UP NEXT
The Spartans and the Pandas will finish the weekend series tomorrow afternoon at the Langley Events Centre. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on CanadaWest.TV.
