Vancouver, BC - Head coach Milan Dragicevic joined the century club, earning his 100th career Canada West regular season victory Friday night as his UBC Thunderbirds defeated the Lethbirdge Pronghorns 5-1 to imrpove to 3-1-1 on the year.
Scott MacDonald and
Justin McCrae each had a pair of goals in the victory.
For the complete box score,
click here.
"We need to have a better start, but I like the way our guys repsonded," said head coach Milan Dragicevic. "We were unable to capitalize on some early opportunities, but eventually we got it going and I liked the way we cycled the puck to create chances in front of the net and our play five on five was improved, but still can be better."
The Thunderbirds had the first chance of the game shorthanded as
Justin McCrae (Cochrane, AB) stole the puck from Lethbridge goaltender Dylan Tait from behind the net, but his wrap around went off the post. On the same man advantage, the Pronghorns would score the game's opening goal as Cass Mappin beat
Jordan White (Surrey, BC) for his second goal of the season to put make it 1-0 for the visitors. UBC responded just 20 seconds later as
Max Grassi (North Vancouver, BC) banged in a huge rebound off a
Brad Hoban (Victoria, BC) to tie the game at 1-1. It was Grassi's second goal of the season. Less then two minutes later, McCrae would get some redemption for his earlier miss, beating Tait with a hard slapper for his first goal of the season and more importantly giving the 'Birds a 2-1 lead. That is how things would stand after 20 minutes.
The second period saw UBC continue to press, but Dylan Tait had something to say about that. He made the best save of the night, stoning Grassi after a great feed from Hoban on a 2-on-1. The Thunderibrds would get to Tait again though, this time it was
Scott MacDonald scoring his third goal fo the season to give UBC a 3-1 lead. Lethbridge's best chance of the period saw Chase Schaber in alone on a breakaway, but his shot would miss the target. 3-1 would remain the score through two periods of play.
Lethbridge had their chances to get back in the game, but couldn't capitalize on their chances. Right after Brent Henke missed the net on a breakaway,
Scott MacDonald scored his second goal of the night on a tic-tac-toe passing play with
Scott Wasden and
Brad Hoban to give the Thunderbirds a three goal advantage. White came up with his best save of the night with 7:30 remaining in the third period, denying Henke point blank in front of the net. McCrae added his second goal of the game with 28.1 seconds left to make it a 5-1 final. UBC is now 3-1-1 on the year, while the Pronghorns fall to 0-4-1.
White finished the night with 21 saves on 22 shots. Hoban led UBC with three assists, while
Jason Yee (Victoria, BC) had a pair of helpers.
It was career regular season win 100 for head coach Milan Dragicevic now in his 11th season as head coach of the Thunderbirds.
"I didn't know it was win 100 until somebody mentioned it to me earlier in the week," said Dragicevic. "I really feel this is a special group. I think we can do great things with this hockey team and every win is huge, especially when you have success at home."
The 'Birds and Pronghorns would do battle again tomorrow night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Puck drop is 7:00 PM. It is the men's hockey team 'Think Pink' night in honour of breast cancer awarness month. All months are encouraged to wear pink in honour.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
LETH Goal Cass Mappin (2) (Brent Henke, Chase Schaber) 6:48 (PP)
UBC Goal
Max Grassi (2) (
Brad Hoban,
Jason Yee) 7:08
UBC Goal
Justin McCrae (1) (
Nate Fleming,
Wyatt Hamilton) 8:54
2nd Period
UBC Goal
Scott MacDonald (3) (
Cole Pruden, Yee) 11:48
3rd Period
UBC Goal
Scott MacDonald (4) (
Scott Wasden, Hoban) 4:16
UBC Goal
Justin McCrae (2) (
Kevin Smith, Hoban) 19:32 (PP)
Shots
LETH 22 UBC 34
Tait: 29 saves
White: 21 saves
Power Play
LETH: 1-5
UBC: 1-1
