VANCOUVER – Regina's third shooter Paige Wheeler scored the shootout round's only goal to lead the Cougars to a 4-3 victory over the Thunderbirds on Friday night at UBC's Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Cougars goaltender Lisa Urban denied Thunderbirds shooters
Tatiana Rafter,
Nikola Brown-John, and
Sarah Casorso before Wheeler rifled a high wrist shot banking in under the crossbar behind the left shoulder of UBC netminder
Carly Butcher.
Goal-scoring by the two teams came early and often in the first 21 mintues of regulation play before falling into a drought all the way through to the third round of the shootout.
On the first shift starting the second period at 0:43,
Rebecca Unrau marked UBC's 3-3 equalizer one-timing home a rebound high glove-side from beneath the right wing circle.
On the play, Unrau recalled, "
Laura Jordan was just in front of the net, I just saw the puck loose in front and shot it top corner."
The Thunderbirds took an early 2-0 lead in the first period, but could not sustain their dominance as the Cougars resoundingly stormed back scoring three goals in a row. Two Regina goals by Brooklyn Moskowy bookended another marker by Gina Campbell gave the Cougars 3-2 at the first intermission.
On her second goal at 1:19 remaining in the opening period, Moskowy pounced on a third rebound chance in the midst of a UBC goalmouth scramble sparked by Butcher vulnerably leaving a rebound then losing sight of the puck.
Moskowy's first goal six minutes earlier developed off an end-boards richochet where she jammed in the puck under Butcher's trapper hand. Campbell followed up 61 seconds later at 13:45 when she capitalized on a Thunderbirds giveaway from behind the UBC net to tie the score 2-2.
The Thunderbirds opened the scoring at 5:44 when Brown-John beat Urban with a high wrist shot down the left wing.
Tamara Pickford deflected in a left point shot from
Cailey Hay three minutes later to push UBC ahead 2-0.
The power play was unfruitful for both teams: 0-for-5 on the Cougars side and 0-for-6 on the Thunderbirds'. UBC failed to convert on a 5-on-4 advantage at the end of the third period, and on a 4-on-3 power play 2:34 into overtime. In the Canada West conference standings,
Regina moves into a share of fifth-place with a 2-3-0 record, while UBC are tied with Manitoba in sixth at 1-1-1.
UBC head coach Jen Rawson anticipates she will start
Samantha Langford in net for the Thunderbirds in the re-match against Regina to complete the two-game weekend series Saturday night (7:00 PM face-off) at the Doug Mitchell Sports Centre.
