VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds (7-15-1) looked like a different team in the last five minutes versus the University of Saskatchewan Huskies (11-7-3) but a late offensive flurry wasn't enough to get the 'Birds over the hump, as UBC dropped a 3-2 decision to the Huskies at Burnaby 8 Rinks.
After struggling to execute through most of the game, the Thunderbirds finally caught a break when
Matthew Schneider raced into the Saskatchewan zone and sent a puck across to
Ryan Kakoske. The d-man jumped into the rush in time to put the puck past Jeff Harvey and get UBC on the board.
“We were desperate to score. We got one, we got some excitement,” said UBC head coach, Milan Dragicevic, explaining his team's about-face. “That was our first goal in five and a half periods or so. We wanted another one bad.”
The goal sparked the T-Birds, who needed only 45 seconds to get their second tally. This time it was
Brandon Campos racing down the left wing and behind the net, drawing two Huskies defenders. That left Darrell May wide open to take a pass and fire it high into the glove side corner.
UBC controlled the play in the final five minutes of the game, but Saskatchewan shut the door and held on for the win.
“We executed those two goals nicely,” said Dragicevic. “We chipped the puck, we drove the net - things we've been talking about that we need to do to score goals. We have to play like that for 60 minutes for us to be successful.”
UBC was out shot 40-17 on the night, and looked like a longshot to make a comeback when Huskies forward Shaun Vey scored at the side of the net early in the third to make it 3-0.
T-Birds netminder
Jordan White weathered a first period storm, stopping 20 shots and coming up big on a couple of odd-man rushes to keep the game tied.
But in the second, Saskatchewan's Brennan Bosch scored on a short-handed two-on-one to open the scoring. Two and a half minutes later, Steven DaSilva jumped on a loose puck in front of the net to add to the Huskies lead.
“We can't constantly play coming from behind,” said Dragicevic. “We had some great chances early, but we didn't capitalize. The difference is that if we score one of those, we make the other team come from behind. We did some good things today, but it just wasn't enough.”
The loss puts UBC even further out of the playoff race. The Thunderbirds will be looking to play spoiler on Saturday when they take on Saskatchewan once again. Puck drop is 7:30pm at 8 Rinks in Burnaby.
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