VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds outshot the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns 44-22, but found themselves on the losing end of a 5-2 final score at Father Bauer Arena on Friday night.
The T-Birds dominated much of the game, but were unable to convert on their chances.
"It was absolutely frustrating," said UBC head coach, Milan Dragicevic. "We did a lot of good things today, but at the end of the day you have to win, you have to execute in front of both nets, and we didn¹t do that today."
Meanwhile, the Pronghorns were opportunistic, capitalizing when UBC made mistakes. Adam Chorneyko put a seemingly harmless puck on net that fooled T-Birds goalie,
Jordan White, giving Lethbridge an early 2-0 lead while short-handed.
Less than two minutes, after UBC tied the game, Lethbridge forward, Winston Day Chief was left alone in front of the net, and put away the game-winning goal.
"We probably made four mistakes tonight, and they scored on three of them," said Dragicevic. "That¹s the difference. We didn¹t make many mistakes tonight, but they capitalized on them."
UBC worked hard over 60 minutes, getting a couple of blue-collar goals including one from Matt Schneider who parked himself in front of the Lethbridge net and banged home a rebound on the power play to put the Thunderbirds on the board.
The tying goal was also a power play marker resulting from a scramble. After several whacks at the net, T-Birds scoring leader,
Tyler Ruel, was able to lift the puck over Lethbridge goalie, Scott Bowles.
But that was all the scoring UBC could manage, despite a flood of pucks to the net, and some solid chances in front. Bowles made 42 stops in the win and was named the game's first star.
"Tonight was a great example of the story of our season," said Dragicevic. "We can outplay teams, we can outshoot teams, but at the end of the day we don¹t get the result. And that¹s the bottom line."
Lethbridge cemented their lead after a costly third period giveaway by the UBC defense. Jason Roberts took a pass from Brain Matte and put home the Pronghorns¹ fourth goal.
Matte added an empty-netter for his third point of the night, lifting Lethbridge¹s playoff hopes with the win. The 'Horns are now just three points back of fourth-place Saskatchewan, however the Huskies do have a pair of games in hand. Meanwhile, UBC¹s loss makes their chances of seeing the post-season remote as they fall four points back of Lethbridge.
The Thunderbirds and Pronghorns are back in action on Saturday night. Puck drop is 7:30pm at the Father Bauer Arena.
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