Spartans find River City to their liking

Mike O'Brien prepares to fire a shot Friday night.

Photo by Cliff Pfenning, oregonsports.com

VANCOUVER, Wash. - One night after getting pounded in Seattle, the Southern Oregon Spartans rebounded with a resounding 12-0 win over River City in a NorPac Pacific Division game Friday at the Mountain View Ice Arena.

Mike O’Brien scored three goals and Chris Witten had a goal and five assists to lead the Spartans, who had a 44-24 edge in shots on goal.

Trey Flesch recorded his second shutout of the season for Southern Oregon before a crowd of 226 fans drawn by the game and the Teddy Bear toss.

“This was a great game for us, especially after last night,” Southen Oregon coach Steve Chelios said. “This was a great way to bounce back and show how we can play.”

Southern Oregon lost in Seattle 9-1.

The win helped the Spartans (19-10, 38 points) continue to hold their spot in second place in the division with another game at River City (10-19, 20 points) Saturday.

Eugene (13-17) remains in third place well behind Seattle (30-2, 60 points).

Puget Sound (1-32, 2 points), which lost to Seattle 10-0 Friday, rounds out the division standings.

Vance Bridgeman got the scoring rolling with a goal at 2:17 of the first period on a powerplay. The teams didn’t score for more than 10 minutes thereafter before the Spartans scored three times in 2:05.

Witten is seventh in the league in points with 47, 10 behind league leader Cameron Hoffman of Seattle.