Saints take Game one, can capture BCIHL title Saturday at NDCC
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Selkirk Saints are a win away from completing an amazing turnaround season after edging Simon Fraser 2-0 in Game one of the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League Championship series Friday at the NDCC Arena.
Selkirk, going from worst to first in one season, can capture the BCIHL title Saturday in Nelson.
Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.
The Saints were led to the victory by netminder Alex Sirard who stopped 23 shots to register the shutout.
However, at the other end of the ice, Selkirk had trouble beating SFU counterpart Graeme Gordon kept the game scoreless until late in the second period when blueliner Justin Sotkowy scored with a wrist shot through traffic on a Saints man-advantage.
And after waiting nearly 40 minutes to open the scoring, the hosts struck again on the power-play just over a minute later when Mason Spear banked a puck off of Gordon from behind the goal line to double the Selkirk lead.
“SFU has a highly-skilled team and we were able to hold them off the board tonight with a very good defensive effort, especially from Alex (Sirard),” said Saints head coach Jeff Dubois.
“He made a number of big saves, especially in the latter part of the second period before we finally got a couple past Gordon. The work ethic was great from top to bottom but we’re going to need an even better performance in order to finish things off.”
The Saints held SFU to just four shots on goal in the third period and were foiled by Gordon on a number of opportunities to build their advantage. T
Selkirk out shot SFU 29-23.
A third and deciding game, if necessary, would take place back at the Castlegar Complex on Sunday at 6 p.m.
