VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team completed a weekend sweep of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans after winning 5-0 Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
UBC also won Friday night's matchup between the two teams, 5-2.
But unlike the previous game, the Thunderbirds dominated from start to finish on Saturday, with three opening period goals that effectively put the game out of reach.
At 6:57 of the first period,
Justin McCrae (Cochrane, AB) opened the scoring with a shot from the slot that went low blocker side into the net.
Jordan Inglis (100 Mile House, BC) recorded the goal of the night at 12:30 of the opening period. He skated into the SAIT zone on a two-on-two and wristed a shot from between the blue line and right faceoff dot. The nasty shot went over Trojan goaltender Ryan Nieszner's glove into the top shelf, hitting the underside of the crossbar where it meets the goalpost.
Just over a minute later at 13:41, Marc Juneau (Quebec City, QC), while on his knees in the goal mouth area, swept the puck past Nieszner, who was pulled after UBC's fourth goal at 1:39 of the second period.
That's when
Scott Brkich (High River, AB), another rookie with UBC, light the lamp.
“I was really happy with the young guys' performance all weekend and we've just got to keep getting better every day,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. “I really liked the rookie line of (Cole) Pruden, (Michael) Wilgosh and Juneau. I thought they were around the puck the whole night. I thought
Jason Yee was very solid on the blue line. He carried the puck and played with confidence.”
McCrae scored his second goal of the night at 19:07 of the second period to round out the scoring.
Marc Desloges (Vancouver, BC) was given the assist, his third of the game.
Goaltender
Steven Stanford (Calgary, AB) started his UBC career by making 23 saves for the shutout.
“Stanford, I thought, played really well,” remarked Dragicevic. “He was composed back there and moved the puck really well. He played well early to give us that opportunity to go ahead.”
UBC will have to regroup quickly as it faces another test on Sunday, its third game in three days. The team will play the prospects of the American Hockey League's Abbotsford Heat.
The game is being played at the South Surrey Arena. Puck drop is 6:05 p.m.
Proceeds will benefit the Semiahmoo Minor Hockey Association.
