The Trinity Western Spartans men’s hockey team had to settle for a split.
The Spartans hosted a pair of B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League games at the Langley Events Centre over the weekend.
And in the opener, Brandon Long put on a show for the home side, scoring four goals in a 6-5 come-from-behind victory against the Selkirk Saints.
Long’s efforts helped the Spartans overcome the fact they gave up four power-play goals.
Matt Chaput and Brody Hemrich had the other goals while Kyle Benjaminsen had three assists.
“The boys battled back,” said Spartan coach Dwayne Lowdermilk. “We battled every shift and really I knew if we could get these guys into the third period, our guys could outskate them. Our guys can skate, it’s just making sure every game we can skate for 60 minutes. We won every battle out there today and it was powerful that way.
“Our top line [with Long, Benjaminsen and Sam Gemmell] has so much speed and so much skill and they’re just a great line to have together.”
But on Saturday, the Okanagan Coyotes scored three times in 1:22 late in the second to seize control, turning a 2-2 game into a three-goal advantage.
They wound up winning by a final score of 9-3.
“It’s the little things and the minute we start breaking down and letting little things slip the game starts to get away from us,” said Spartans coach Dwayne Lowdermilk. “We have to stay out of the box and we have to be able to get our power play working.
“We have a great team as far as skaters and skilled guys but we just have to find each other and make it a full team thing.”
Long, Trevor Edwards and Trevor Beaupre had the Spartan goals.
Trinity Western dropped to 4-10-2 on the season.
They host first-place Simon Fraser on Friday at the LEC.