VICTORIA – Last night, the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves felt their defence did a good enough job to earn the victory. This evening at Centennial Stadium in a rematch against the University of Victoria Vikes, they left no doubt.

The Timberwolves returned the favour and shut out the Vikes 2-0 to split the weekend two-game series.

A slow first half was managed better by the Timberwolves, as they went into the break leading 5-2 in shots.

The Timberwolves best chance came in the off a throw in during the 37^th minute. Stu Rowlands took the pass, waltzed deep into the Vikes zone and cranked a low and hard drive at net, but the Surrey, B.C., product Jas Lally dove to make the right-handed save.

The Vikes struggled all evening to get sustainable offence going. Not helping the matter was that they were without leading scorer Isaac Koch for personal reasons. Vikes Head Coach Bruce Wilson shuffled Ian Whibley to left wing and Sylvain Taghaoussi moved up to striker.

In the second half, the Timberwolves suffocating defence grabbed a turnover and headed up field. Owen Stewart put it on a tee for Rowlands and he ripped a one-timer past Lally for his first of the season at the 51^st minute mark.

"He's a big lad, tough to slow down and he's a good finisher. He showed that tonight. But again, I think we made two defensive errors that helped him out. If we clean those up, I think it's a different story," said Vikes co-captain Evan Libke.

Six minutes later, Rowlands earned his second snipe of the game when Owen Stewart sent him in alone on Lally and he wired one five-hole on Lally.

In crunch time, the Vikes responded with a couple good tries from Jose Sagaste. There was nobody between him and the net until Aidan Way slid in at the last minute to block it. On the ensuing corner, Libke's header shot over the crossbar.

With less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation, the Vikes were awarded a free kick at midfield. Niko Cristante drilled it downfield and found the forehead of Matteo Ventura, but Rob Goodey snagged it for one of his three saves.

Even in the loss, it was a dramatically different result for the Vikes, as they yielded eight goals in two games last weekend.

"If you look at our roster, we still have a young group. It's going to be a learning process. I think we learned from our mistakes last weekend and hopefully we learn from our mistakes tonight," said Libke.

The Vikes (3-3-0) will host the 1-0-1 University of Alberta Golden Bears (Sept. 13) and the 1-2-1 University of Saskatchewan Huskies (Sept. 15) next weekend.