Simon Fraser went into Friday night’s game against Thompson Rivers with a singular goal in mind, get the 2 points necessary to leap frog into first place.
A tight defensive first period on both ends, but the opportunistic road effort from SFU’s top line of Paul Moscone, Chris Hoe and Jaime Laprise turned the puck over early and made TRU pay for the mistake, as Laprise finished a nice passing play to beat TRU starter Anthony Manfredi and have a 1-0 lead less than 3 minutes into the hockey game.
But the Wolf Pack were resilient early in this game as on the powerplay, Darcy Huisman tees up a Cody Rose pass from the right point and whips one passed Justin Mulholland.
The second period would start much the same as the first, tight checking, and well disciplined on both ends.
But this game of speed and neither team giving an inch, kept the crowd into it for less than 2 minutes when James Isaacs off of a defensive zone faceoff skates to centre and finds Jaime Laprise streaking down the right wing on a 2 on 1 with Chris Hoe and instead of taking the shot, makes a nifty pass across the slot and Hoe puts it underneath the pad of Manfredi, 2-1 Clan.
A few minutes later, James Isaacs for the Clan winds up from just inside the blue line and wires a slap shot that goes over Manfredi’s left glove, 3-1 SFU.
But seconds later, TRU’s Andrew Fisher from the slot receives a pass from behind the net and beats Mulholland low glove and makes it 3-2 in the second.
SFU played a perfect road game for a team that had never one in the Kamloops Memorial Arena, and for a TRU team that had never lost at home, SFU made the game simple and didn’t go overboard giving the Wolf Pack 4 power plays, and only scoring once.
The clan were not finished in the second period, after weathering a heavy offensive foray by Thompson Rivers, the Moscone line in transition Laprise, finds Hoe in the slot, who finds Moscone in the right slot, fakes a shot then shovels a pass to the back door where Chris Hoe was waiting for his second goal of the game and a 4-2 lead with 3 minutes left in the second.
Still in the second, a Kyle Boyko rebound finds Chris Hoe on the doorstep puts it past a sprawling Manfredi to complete the hat trick and give the Clan a 5-2 lead with less than a 30 seconds remaining in the period.
The third period didn’t generate much offense other than an empty net goal for SFU as the Wolf Pack pulled their netminder with 90 seconds left to play in the game and Colby Kulhanek back in the SFU lineup makes it 6-2.
TRU does have a bit of life yet, as Dylan Becker beats Justin Mulholland in the dying seconds of the game to make it a 6-3 final.
It was the first win on the road in Kamloops for Simon Fraser and the first loss on home ice in their short 2 year history.
SFU is back at it tonight, Saturday February 26 hosting UVic at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.
The Pregame show starts at 7:50 on the SFU Hockey Broadcast Network.
Click here to listen to friday's archived game at TRU.
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