Box Score
CALGARY – Depth wins hockey games.

Seven different MRU Cougars players scored on Saturday night as Mount Royal downed the Trinity Western Spartans 7-2 in Canada West men's hockey action.

After being plagued by minor penalties on Friday, it didn't take long for Mount Royal to be shorthanded again. 

Clay Hanus went off for tripping and the Spartans capitalized. In one of the strangest goals hockey fans will ever see, Jonathan Krahn's point shot flew over the net, clanking off the glass and rolling on top of the net. The puck bounced Cougars' netminder Riley Sims' mask and into the net.

MRU wasn't getting the favourable bounces early but their lack of discipline wasn't helping them either.

MRU head coach Bert Gilling acknowledged that discipline was an issue for his team this weekend.

"We're going to address it. The one thing I didn't like was the amount of offensive zone penalties we took," Gilling commented. "We expect to kill 3-5 penalties per game; when it gets over that amount, it gets really taxing."

To make matters worse, Trinity Western added a second goal just a few minutes later on their second shot of the game. Luke Spadafora cut wide on the Cougars' defence with speed before swerving back to the centre and tucking a backhander under the pads of Sims.

Sims was making his fourth start of the season, Gilling opted to give Shane Farkas the night off. 

Mount Royal got one back with just under six minutes to play in the first. Jayden Wiens won an offensive zone faceoff back to the point allowing Clay Hanus to rush in from the wing. The former Portland Winterhawk captain cut into the middle, similar to Luke Spadafora's goal, except Hanus elevated the puck with his backhand over the shoulder of Spartans goalie Leon Sommer. 

Despite the slow start, the Cougars had partially shifted the momentum back in their favour and were down by one heading into the first intermission.

"I'm happy with the way the guys responded. From the net out," said Bert Gilling. "[Sims] shut the door after the start. I think the whole team shut the door after it got to 2-0."

In the second period, Mount Royal looked much more like the team that beat Trinity Western 6-3 at the beginning of the season.

Cougars' captain Kyle Walker tied the game at two with a snapshot while on the powerplay just a minute into the period.

Jayden Wiens got his second of the season after an exchange of penalties partway through the frame, tucking in a loose puck just as a Spartan penalty expired.

The two former WHLers, Walker and Wiens helped Mount Royal snatch the momentum back with half of the game remaining.

With the floodgates open, MRU added two more quick goals. Josh Tarzwell continued his impressive comeback season, scoring his sixth of the campaign. The fourth-year forward missed the entire 2023-24 season due to injury.

Leith Olafson made it five for the Cougars less than a minute after Tarzwell's tally. Tristan Zandee busted into the Spartans' zone before putting the puck on a platter for Olafson to wire a perfect shot past Leon Sommer.

In the third, one of the few Cougars without a goal this season found twine. An often unsung piece of a deep MRU roster, Michael Ladyman potted a nifty goal, banking it off the Trinity Western defenceman from behind the net. Ladyman's teammates were ecstatic to see his hard work be rewarded and the defenceman's arms dropped to his sides in satisfactory relief.

"Mike is crafty. He's got great hand skills. That goal, not everyone would've done what he did there," said Bert Gilling. "The thing about him is: when we're playing well, Michael Ladyman is playing well."

To add the extra point to the "touchdown," reigning national player of the year Connor Bouchard wowed the FCA faithful with a spectacular end-to-end rush that was finished by a Patrick Kane-like deke. Although it was an impressive individual effort, Bouchard insisted on crediting the rest of his team.

"Every guy doing their job opened up the ice for me. Clay [Hanus] made a great read for me. It may have looked like an individual effort but it sure wasn't," said Bouchard.

Seven goals on 51 shots wrapped up a weekend sweep for Mount Royal, who will now prepare for two of the biggest games of the season against the University of Alberta Golden Bears.

Bouchard and the Cougars are confident in where they stand right now, with the main goal remaining the same: win it all.

"We were never going to go 28-0. Especially in the conference we're in," Bouchard explained. "There's a lot of confidence in our group going into the Alberta games."

"We're a Band of Brothers; everybody on the team knows our goal and that's where we're trying to get to week-by-week, game-by-game," concluded Bouchard.