VANCOUVER –
Jordan Inglis led the way with a hat trick (three goals) and two assists as the UBC Thunderbirds beat the Lethbridge Pronghorns 7-3 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Saturday.
For the second night in a row, the T-Birds pulled away from a closely contested game in the third period with an outpouring of offence, including a pair of power play goals.
Jordan Inglis opened the game's scoring with a wraparound goal and later notched the game-winner in the second goal putting home a blue collar goal after sustained pressure from UBC.
His third goal, on a late power play, rounded out the scoring at 7-3.
Inglis also assisted on
Nate Fleming's goal, which reestablished UBC's lead less than 20 seconds after Lethbridge tied the game 1-1 on second period a goal from Daniel Iwanski.
Other Thunderbirds goal scorers included
Jason Yee,
Scott Wasden and
Max Grassi.
For the Pronghorns, Iwanski provided a pair of goals, while Taylor Gal chimed in with a marker of his own. The Pronghorns were down 1-0 at the first intermission and while they clawed back repeatedly in the second period, the team was never able to keep the game tied long. Twice UBC responded less than a minute after a tying goal, while
Scott Wasden's goal in the second period reestablished the Thunderbirds' lead two and a half minutes after Gal had tied the game.
“You saw a confident team every time Lethbridge scored; we always bounced back the next shift,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. “I give a lot of credit to Inglis, Fleming, and Hamilton. They were our main guys out there and they scored some nice goals on the forecheck. Inglis got moved up to the second line today. The last few weeks he's been playing on the third line, and he got rewarded for his hard work.”
Another standout for UBC this weekend was rookie defenceman
Jason Yee. Yee notched goals each night, and added an assist when Hamilton deflected his point shot on a late power play to close out the scoring.
“A big thing with Yee is he's getting confident playing the power play and making smart decisions, knowing when to jump down,” said Dragicevic. “Both nights he jumped down and had opportunities. When we get secondary scoring, it makes a big difference.”
The pair of UBC victories also makes a big difference in the standings, as the T-Birds close the gap on the Calgary Dinos to two points.
“We're not happy being .500 but it's not the end of the world - we're two points from Calgary for that last home playoff spot,” explained Dragicevic. “Our goal at the beginning of the year was to get a home playoff spot, and we're a little closer to that now.”
For Lethbridge, the loss means the Pronghorns head into the break in last place in Canada West. However, they remain just two points out of the sixth and final playoff spot thanks to the Regina Cougars' matching two-game losing streak.
The UBC Thunderbirds will face those same Cougars to kick off the new year, while Lethbridge will meet the first place Saskatchewan Huskies.
