VANCOUVER – Goaltender
Jordan White (3rd, Surrey, BC) stopped 40 of 41 shots to propel his UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team to a 2-1 victory over the No. 8 Manitoba Bisons on Friday night in Vancouver.
“I thought Whitey was great tonight,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic of White. “I thought he was the difference. We need goaltenders to steal us games. Tonight, he stole us a game.”
Wyatt Hamilton (3rd, Cochrane, AB) scored the game-winning goal in the second period after UBC's
Marc Desloges (5th, Vancouver, BC) and Manitoba's Matthew Lowry traded first period tallies.
Hamilton's goal came at 10:16 of the second period on a partial 2-on-1. Skating down the right side, he snapped home a
Scott Wasden (3rd, Westbank, BC) pass from the leftcircle.
The goal came against the flow of play as Manitoba dominated puck possession in the second and third periods, outshooting UBC 35-13 after the Thunderbirds had a 13-6 advantage in the opening frame.
“We've got to do a way better job of supporting the puck carrier,” said Dragicevic. “We didn't do it in the third period, we did in the first two periods. We had a lot of success but if we don't support the puck carrier, then, especially with a team like Manitoba, then we're going to be in trouble.”
But White was spectacular in keeping the Bisons at bay, especially in the third when Manitoba threw 19 shots on net.
One of the biggest saves came at 11:25, when he denied Tyler Schmidt, who got a clear shot on White in the slot as the trailing player on a 3-on-2.
Then at 3:39, White just got enough of his glove to tip a Jeremy Shuppert shot over the net. Shuppert had lots of room to step in from the middle of the blueline to fire a slapshot at White from the slot.
Desloges opened the scoring at 12:54 of the first period, when he fired home a loose puck in front of the net.
Lowry scored for Manitoba at 17:15 in a similar fashion to tie the game.
Neither first period goal came on the power play despite 16 minutes in penalties handed out by the officials in the first 20 minutes ofplay.
“I thought we were sloppy in the third period,” said Dragicevic. “I thought in the first two periods, we traded chances. It could have gone either way but in the third,
Jordan White shut the door, making some great saves. I thought our penalty killing did a good job. We need a goal on the power play, bottom line, to get some confidence. We've got to start scoring more goals and generate more shots on the power play if we want to have more success. “
The Thunderbirds went 0-for-5 on the power play in the game.
White's performance earned him his fourth win of the year and improved UBC's record to 5-4-2. It was also the Thunderbirds' first win on a Friday night in 2011-12. Every one of the team's previous victories have come on a Saturday.
Bisons' goalie Jesse Deckert made 24 saves in the loss, which drops Manitoba to 6-3-2.
The same two teams will meet on Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Sports Centre in Vancouver. The opening face-off will take place at 7 p.m.
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