VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds outlasted the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans 5-2 in an exhibition game Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sport Centre.
“We're happy we won,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic after the game. “There are a lot of things we need to really work on. Defensive zone coverage, breakouts, forecheck, neutral zone, power play, penalty killing, we have to do it all.”
But Dragicevic's team did get stronger as Friday night's encounter went on.
With the score tied 2-2 in the middle of the second period, UBC's
Wyatt Hamilton (Cochrane, AB) took advantage of a bad SAIT line change to score the eventual game-winning goal.
Hamilton grabbed a loose puck at centre and powered his way towards the Trojan net. His first shot was stopped by SAIT goaltender Tommy Sandahl, but Hamilton knocked in his own rebound as he cut across the crease.
Then the Thunderbirds iced the game with an insurance goal early in the third.
Jordan Inglis (100 Mile House, BC) created a turnover at the SAIT blue line, and then found teammate
Scott Wasden (Westbank, BC) with a pass down the wing. Wasden took the puck to the net and scored. It was one of Inglis' two helpers on the night.
A four-on-four goal by UBC's
Michael Wilgosh (Selkirk, MB) capped off a three-point performance for the rookie and rounded out the scoring.
“I like the fact that we started to shoot the puck, and we got some rebounds and goals,” said Dragicevic, whose team didn't get off to a good start in Friday night's game.
Three minutes in, Rob Nocera opened the scoring on the power play for the Alberta visitors as the Thunderbirds ran into early discipline problems.
But UBC replied quickly with a power play goal of its own. At 8:16, UBC defenceman
Ryan Kakoske (Vernon, BC) floated a shot from the middle of the blue line that eluded Sandahl.
Then a minute into the second period, UBC took the lead on a goal from another newcomer,
Jason Yee (Victoria, BC), who added an assist on the game's final goal.
Just over three minutes later, Clinton Pettapiece tied the game back up for SAIT, setting up the stage for Hamilton's winning marker for UBC.
Goaltender
Jordan White (Surrey, BC) made 19 saves in the Thunderbirds net for the victory.
“We fought a little adversity, down 1-0 early and we came back and we got better,” said Dragicevic. “Even leading 3-2 going into the third period, we shut them down and didn't give them any odd-man rushes, and kept them to four shots in the period so defensively I thought we were okay.”
The same two teams will meet again on Saturday night at the Mitchell Thunderbird Winter Sport Centre. Puck drop is 7:00 p.m.
