This week: Calgary at UBC, Fri. & Sat., Oct. 22 & 23, 7:00 p.m., Father Bauer Arena
VANCOUVER - For the second straight weekend, the UBC Thunderbirds will be at home as they close out a four-game stand at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Friday and Saturday against the Calgary Dinos. Both games will be played in the Father Bauer Arena, with puck drop at 7:00 p.m.
A look at the T-Birds
The UBC Thunderbirds opened the 2010-11 season with a win and a loss against Alberta, showing both a strong ability to compete but exposing some areas in need of improvement as well.
In game one, the 'Birds came from behind to earn a 4-2 win, showing determination and character in the face of adversity. The Blue and Gold laid big hits and moved the puck well. In game two, a 6-2 loss, UBC again competed hard and kept things close early but had trouble getting pucks to the net.
In both games, the 'Birds got scoring from skill players like
Dalton Pajak and
Justin McCrae, as well as grittier contributors such as
Ben Schmidt and
Mike Liambas. The depth of their secondary scoring bodes well for their games against Calgary.
The area of greatest need for the T-Birds is undoubtedly their power play, which was shut out in 11 tries against the Golden Bears. On the other side of the special teams equation, UBC's penalty kill functioned at 92% against a very skilled Alberta power play unit.
Another bright spot was the play of second-year goaltender
Jordan White, who made critical save down the stretch in game one to help the T-Birds hang on and earn a win.
A look at the Dinos
The Calgary Dinos dropped the first two games of their season with losses to a powerful Alberta squad. They followed up with a pair of wins over Lethbridge, the first 5-4 in a shootout, and the next a low scoring 2-1 affair. The Dinos head to Vancouver looking to take a step ahead of a jammed pack in Canada West.
The Dinos are led by Vancouver native Reid Jorgensen, who has four goals and one assist in four games this season. Jorgensen had 30 points in 28 games last season and so far looks to keep a similar pace in 2010-11.
The Dinos' Jerrid Sauer has started the year as an offensive threat from the blueline. The defenceman has three goals in four games, equaling his total over 26 games last season.
Last year, Calgary squeaked into the fourth and final playoff spot thanks to a pair of extra points from a shootout loss and an overtime loss. The Dinos will be looking for more breathing room in their bid for the post-season this time around.
Coach Dragicevic on...
This week's focus:
“Our focus this week is to improve on the things we need to from last weekend. The biggest thing is creating more offensive chances and improving the power play. Those are the biggest needs. We need more traffic and more second shots.”
His team's strengths after two games:
“The positives are the fact that our penalty killing was 13 for 14. We kept Alberta under 55 shots for the weekend. We battled back. We were down both nights and came back and had the opportunity to win it. We're going to take the positives and get better at them, and improve on the things we really need to bear down on.”
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