Burnaby, BC – SFU kicked off its home schedule on Saturday after starting the season with a loss and a win up in Castlegar against the Selkirk College Saints.

It was a penalty-filled affair at Bill Copeland Arena where the cross-town rivals Trinity Western Spartans took on the SFU Clan in the first “Battle of Port Mann” of the 2018/19 season. The first period was relatively quiet, but SFU on a less-than-disciplined night would take 5 minor penalties in the first, with Verveda scoring a late goal to give the Spartans a 1-0 advantage. SFU seemed to settle in for the second period, but could not solve TWU netminder Lucas Mills, giving up another late goal to Brandon Potomak who extended the TWU lead.

Darnel St. Pierre would make things interesting midway through the third period with a nice one-time shot on the powerplay, but TWU answered less than 20 seconds later as Logan Casavant was sprung on a breakaway and put TWU up 3-1. A rash of penalties would follow including an ejection to Spencer Unger for a hit from behind, and TWU would add one on the powerplay for good measure. With little consolation, SFU would finish ahead of TWU in shots by 29-25.

Both goalies were outstanding in the game as Michael Lenko kept SFU in the game until midway through the third period. TWU’s Lucas Mills had what could be the save of the season robbing Austin Adam point blank to keep the 1 goal lead at the time.

SFU is now 1-2-0 on the season and have a tough test next week where they play on October 26 in Victoria to take on the Vikes before coming back to Burnaby a Saturday showdown against the visiting Selkirk College Saints for their 3rd meeting of the season.