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Villains of the Valley sweep Beasts of B.C.

Cam Charron - Sports Editor

A four-goal outburst, a Korey Gannon fight and some timely penalty killing in the second period was all it took for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack to upset the Simon Fraser University Clan late Saturday night.

“For Korey to step up and defend his teammate, that was the turning point,” said WolfPack coach Chris Hans. “That SFU club is a very good hockey team. I don’t know if the close score is indicative of us faltering or if they’re a very strong hockey club.”

After the teams traded pairs of goals in the first, with new WolfPack player Kevin Hanna getting a goal and an assist along with Dyne Parker, the ‘Pack came out strong in the second, getting goals from Jassi Sangha and Jose Reyes before the Gannon fight. On the ensuing penalty kill, Casey Patterson scored a shorthanded goal, followed by a Cody Lockwood powerplay marker.

But the fight brought the crowd to its feet. After a dustup at the TRU bench with Clan forward Mat Tzetzos, Gannon hopped on the ice and they exchanged blows. Gannon knocked off Tzetzos’ helmet and wound up breaking the Clansman’s nose with a clean right hook.

“That’s kind of the nature of the beast unfortunately, sometimes it goes both ways and I hope the other guy’s okay,” Gannon said.

“Any time you can spark your team with a good old tilt, credit to you,” said Clan head coach Mark Coletta. “You hear a lot of talk about taking fighting out of hockey, I think there is a place for it if done properly.”

The third period brought the end to an instant classic. After a weak wrist shot by Joel Leonard beat Justin Mulholland glove side to give the WolfPack a 7-3 lead, SFU stormed back with three goals in the final five minutes.

“I thought that [that goal] was just icing on the cake, but that’s a team that you can’t count out until the very end,” Leonard said. “I just came off the bench and Sangha had a good forecheck, he was first on the puck and hit me, I just threw it on net.”

A shift by Reyes and David Gore pinned the puck deep. Gore was hit from behind by Clan captain Andrew Graham with 1:10 to go. A soft slashing call on Sangha gave the Clan a powerplay to work with with 40 seconds left.

But the WolfPack controlled the puck in their own zone, and Gore ended up banking a shot off the near boards which curled right into the SFU open net to give the WolfPack an 8-6 win. “I just knew it was shorthanded so I could shoot it from anywhere and wouldn’t get called for icing,” Gore said. “I go curling on Thursday nights so maybe that helped me.”

The action took place in front of an announced crowd of 1,450, the majority of which were sitting on the penalty box side waving pom-poms and towels, smashing thundersticks and being generally as rowdy as university can get.

Mark Coletta credited the TRU fans. “If you don’t have that atmosphere, what are you playing for?” he said. “If you can’t get up for something like that, you might as well be playing the piano.” “No question [we have the best fans in the league],” Gore said. “We’re bringing in a thousand and they’re absolutely nuts. That’s the reason we’re 9-0 [at home].”

That number would go to 10-0 after Sunday’s game. TRU won 7-4 thanks to a pair of markers from Kevin Hanna. Jacob Wiens would add three assists.

Justin Mulholland was pulled after the fifth TRU goal. He allowed 12 goals on 49 shots on the weekend. On TRU’s side, Blake Tancock made 21 saves on 27 shots Saturday night, with backup Brock Fraser putting in another strong performance Sunday afternoon, with 30 saves on 34 shots.