VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds faced a stiff test against the Canada West-leading Alberta Golden Bears, but a pair of Bears goals in the early minutes of the second period made the difference in a 3-1 Alberta win at Doug Mitchell Arena.
Canada West's leading rookie scorer, Jordan Hickmott, opened the scoring for the Bears when he burst behind the UBC defense to take a lead pass and beat UBC goalie
Jordan White on the backhand early in the first period. Kruise Reddick notched the game winner with a snapshot from the faceoff circle that clanked off the post and behind White. Barely three minutes later, Greg Gardner's long distance slapshot made its way through a crowd and into the back of the UBC net. Johnny Lazo had a pair of assists to lead all scorers on the night.
UBC's lone goal came in typical blue collar fashion as
Nate Fleming skated into a crowd in front of Alberta goalie Real Cyr to bang home the 'Birds only goal of the game late in the first period.
After a pair of huge road wins in Calgary last weekend to leap ahead of the Dinos in the standings, Friday's loss, which snapped a six-game winning streak, came as a huge disappointment to the T-Birds.
“We had a lot of mental mistakes, which came down from a total lack of intensity,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. “There's no excuse for that. We made mistakes on the back check tracking the puck back to the net. We didn't establish the forecheck or being physical on them. They dictated the pace the whole game. We were chasing the puck way too much today. They had possession of the puck, their defense did a good job in transition. We didn't work for 60 minutes, that's the bottom line.”
It's gut-check time for the Thunderbirds, whose last six wins came against teams in the bottom half of the Canada West standings. Facing first place Alberta was a test for Dragicevic's surging team, and he wasn't fond of the results.
“If we want to accomplish anything as a hockey team, it's teams like this that we've got to beat,” said Dragicevic. “We didn't do a good enough job tonight. There's no excuse for what happened tonight. We got beaten by a very good hockey team, but we're also a very good hockey team. Just because we lost one game doesn't change who we are or what we're striving to become.”
While Alberta favours a fast paced game, UBC tends towards a grittier style. On Friday, it was the players who worked hardest that made the biggest difference for the T-Birds.
“Fleming, (Wyatt) Hamilton, (Jordan) Inglis – they got rewarded tonight,” noted Dragicevic. “They played a lot and they played strong. They did simple things, they worked, and they had effort. When you have second efforts and third efforts, and you play good defense, you're going to get chances. We need everyone to play like that.”
Saturday sees Alberta back at UBC. The Thunderbirds hope to maintain their current position in the conference - one point ahead of Calgary for the final home playoff spot – with a win. Alberta is working to hold on to first place, just two points ahead of both Manitoba and Saskatchewan in a dogfight for the top spots in Canada West.
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