Vancouver, BC - The number two ranked team in the nation, the Saskatchewan Huskies, proved why they belong among the top teams in the country defeating the UBC Thunderbirds 5-1 Saturday night at Father Bauer Arena. With the victory the Huskies improve to 7-1-0 on the year and remain in top spot in the Canada West. The Thunderbirds fall to 4-3-1 this season.
Box Score
"If we want to be serious contenders in this league, this is the level we have to get to," said head coach Milan Dragicevic. " It has to happen every night, not just when we feel like. Tonight we did not bring it."
The visitors opened the scoring 7:23 into the opening period as Brandon Herrod tipped Chris Durand's wrister past
Jordan White (Surrey, BC) to make it 1-0. Saskatchewan would add to their lead on a 5-on-3 power play courtesy of Brett Ward who had all kinds of room in the high slot to hammer home his first goal of the season. 2-0 is how things stood after 20 minutes of play.
Saskatchewan continued to pressure in the second period, creating a number of opportunities. They would make it 3-0 on the power play as one time Vancouver Giant Kenton Dulle banged home a rebound for his first goal of the saeason. Craig McCallum wired a slapper from the top of the circle to increase the lead to 4-0 through two periods of play.
UBC finally got on the board in the third period on the power play.
Brad Hoban (Victoria, BC) snapped home his fourth goal of the season to cut the lead to 4-1. Unfortunately that is all the offense the Thunderbirds would produce on the night. McCallum added his second of the night on a partial breakaway to make it a 5-1 final for the Huskies.
"We simply didn't push back enough, especially when we got in a two nothing hole," explained Dragicevic. "Limiting them to 27 shots was definitely a positive step, but overall we did not give our goalie a lot of support. We have to better defensively. Through seven games we were third in the country in goals for and 32nd in goals against. We are not the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980's. We aren't going to win 6-5. Our guys have to realize this and make it a priority to improve our team defence."
Final shots were 27-25 in favour of the Huskies. Saskatchewan went 2-for-3 on the power play, while UBC finished 1-for-4.
The Thunderbirds were without captain
Justin McCrae (Cochrane, AB) due to injury. He got banged up in the final minutes of Friday night's loss to the Huskies.
After coming into the weekend one point out of first, the Thunderbirds now fall into a fifth place tie with Manitoba. Just one point separates second from sixth place in the conference
"This is a tough league and anybody can beat anybody on a given night," Dragicevic said. "We have to give ourselves the opportunity to contend come January and February and to do so we need to realize how important these points are right now. This was a huge lesson for our team."
The 'Birds now hit the road for a weekend series in Calgary against Mount Royal (2-6-0) Friday November 2 and Saturday November 3.
