The Simon Fraser University Hockey Team won it’s second straight BC Intercollegiate Hockey Title with a 5-2 win over Thompson River University by a 5-2 score Sunday night at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.
The rink is the home arena of the team which saw them host the Championship in 2011 they eventually got revenge on Thompson River who had them 3-0 in the round robin portion of the week long tournament.
Even though SFU out played and out shot them in Friday’s game by a 39-16 margin in the loss; this was redemption for the Title before 618 fans at the arena.
Simon Fraser led 1-0 after the first and 2-0 heading into the final period opening up a comfortable 3-0 lead by the 8:14 mark of the final period before Thompson Valley tried to start a comeback against SFU, twice pulling to within a couple of goals before SFU added an empty netter to clinch the title.
Bill Smith from Colby Kulhanek and Volodymyr Dashko at 12:04 on the power play gave the defending Champions the lead over Thompson Rivers as SFU dominated the opening period.
The score could have been double if not for Thompson Rivers goalie Anthony Manfredi who stopped 13 of the shots he faced in the opening period as the score could have been a t least 3-0 over their opponents.
Justin Mulholland was sharp when he had to be as the Clan took a 1-0 lead to the intermission.
Paul Moscone of the Clan made it 2-0 again striking on the power play late in the second period with 3:56 remaining set-up by Jas Rai and Kyle Boyko.
Thompson Rivers for a portion of the second period controlled the game even while being down by a goal to SFU as they pressed Justin Mulholland for the equalizer.
He faced 11 shots in the period stopping all of them in the process to preserve the lead for SFU heading into the final period. Shots through two periods were 22-21 for the Clan in what was a goalkeepers battle for the most part and a battle of the special teams after 40 minutes.
SFU made it 3-0 with the early man advantage as Paul Moscone notched his second of the game from Laprise and Hoe at 8:04.
Thompson Rivers finally got on the scoreboard on a goal by Zac Rasmussen at 8:14 only to have the Clan get that one back Ben Van Lare on the PP.
Joel Leonard from Cody Lockwood got Thompson Rivers back to within a goal at 4-2 at 10:22 to cut the lead in half at 4-2.
Simon Fraser finished of the game with an empty netter as Ben Van Lare his second of the game from Bill Smith at 19:40 sealed the victory and the Title for the 2010-11 season adding another title to their trophy case.
Shots in the game were 31-28 for SFU as Justin Mulholland stopped 26 shots for the win, while Thompson Rivers tender Anthony Manfredi made 26 saves on the 30 shots.
The three stars were Paul Moscone first star for SFU followed by Justin Mulholland (goal) for the Clan and Ben Van Lare.
The team was presented with the Championship Banner and the Trophy emblematic of supremacy in the BCIHL for 2010-11 players received the gold medals for SFU and Champions Caps, Thompson
Rivers were presented with their silver medals runners-up for second straight year in just their second year of operation in the League and had no reason to hold their heads down as they had a great season to be proud of and what is to come for next year.
