VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds' dwindling playoff hopes took a severe blow with 6-1 loss to the Alberta Pandas at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Saturday night. The T-Birds were overwhelmed in the first period, but found their legs in the second period. Unfortunately, the effort still wasn't enough to overcome the CIS no. 5 ranked visitors from Edmonton.
UBC head coach Nancy Wilson tried to pinpoint her team's troubles.
“What we were trying to do was adjust to their cycle in our defensive zone,” said Wilson. “We're still really trying to get players used to our systems, and when a team like Alberta skates so well, we really need to anticipate. We've got a few injuries and we're not skating as well as we did in the first half.”
The Pandas got out to a 3-0 lead in the first period thanks to a tally from Katie Stewart and a pair from Jennifer Jubb. Jubb opened the scoring on a scramble in close during a power play, and closed out the first period scoring with a slapshot that UBC goalie
Melinda Choy got a piece of but couldn't contain.
The T-Birds' woes continued into the second period when another power play goal for the Pandas put the Albertans up 4-0. This time it was Karla Bourke getting a pass at the side of the net and roofing it past Choy.
The T-Birds finally solved Kanesa Shwetz in the Alberta net when
Lauren Ruggiero's wrist shot beat the Panda's keeper following a pass from
Alisha Choy. That gave the Blue and Gold some jump, and for the first time in two nights they looked like the team that defeated the Pandas earlier in the regular season.
Lindsie Fairfield took the wind out of the T-Birds' sails when she scored to make it 5-1 on a two-on-one in the dying seconds of the second frame. Fairfield looked to pass, then shot the puck low into the corner, fooling Choy. It was a heartbreaker for the Thunderbirds.
“We roll three lines and if we take penalties there's a fatigue level,” said Wilson. “There were a couple of tough goals tonight, and if we could just get all the pieces to fit together like we did at the beginning of the season, we'd be on a roll.”
Hilary Talbot stepped into the UBC goal to start the third period, and allowed one goal, a sharp angle shot from Alana Cabana that put the Pandas up 6-1.
Wilson further discussed her squad's modus operandi and the need to improve.
“We're not a fancy team. We don't want to paint a Picasso every time we're on the ice,” said Wilson. “We're trying to really battle hard on the defensive side of the puck in order to give us chances on the offensive side of the puck. Our D needs to stay attached to [opposing teams'] forwards. We didn't do that in the first period tonight, but once we started to do that in the second and third we were really much better.”
Next up for the T-Birds are two home games versus Hayley Wickenheiser and the Calgary Dinos on January 14 and 15.
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