Vancouver, BC – The Thunderbirds suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 shootout loss to the Regina Cougars Saturday night, giving them three out of a possible four points for the season's opening weekend.
It took the Cougars 70 minutes and six shootout shooters to finally gain an edge on the Thunderbirds, who battled back from two early deficits to force the extra frame.
BOXSCORE
Despite the loss, head coach
Graham Thomas was pleased with the experience.
“We're a young team,” he explained. “TO play in some overtime and to play in a shootout is a good experience, and I think we learned a lot.”
The team was backstopped by
Danielle Lemon (Madison, WI), who was making her first start of the season and turned away 39 shots plus an additional three in the shootout.
For the second night in a row, UBC started the game a bit flat, lacking sustained pressure and failing to capitalize on a pair of power plays. A defensive lapse late in the frame lead to Regina's first marker, a goal by Katelyn Kennedy.
The second period started out better, but a bad offside call on a 4-on-2 rush on the power play seemed to suck some of the momentum away from the team.
On their fifth power play, UBC finally connected on an unassisted goal by
Cailey Hay (Oakbank, MB), but just 41 seconds later Regina's Hillary Lerat got the tally right back to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead.
The Thunderbirds came out on fire to start the third period, sensing the urgency.
Rebecca Unrau (Humboldt, SK) tied the game with a hand from
Emily Grainger (Sooke, BC) just 2:34 into the period, and it seemed as if UBC could be on the verge of taking over. Instead, a pair of failed power plays and some missed chances in the offensive zone kept the game at a dead lock.
With just 2:37 remaining in regulation time, the Thunderbirds were forced to kill a penalty, and the defense stood up to the test to keep the game knotted and send it into overtime.
The penalty kill was again put to the test in the extra frame, with some great pressure and an assist from the crossbar keeping things close. Overtime settled nothing, so the Thunderbirds entered their first shootout of the season.
Lemon shut the door on two of Regina's first three shooters, while
Tatiana Rafter (Winnipeg, MB) had the lone successful attempt for the Thunderbirds.
The two teams continued their evenly matched battle in sudden death rounds of the shootout, with Regina's Rianne Wight and UBC's
Christi Capozzi (Kelowna, BC) both scoring after each team had been denied on their fourth chance.
In the sixth round of shooters, Wight scored for the Cougars, but Rafter lost the handle on her second attempt, giving Regina the 4-3 shootout edge and the 3-2 victory.
With the point from the shootout loss, UBC is now 1-0-1, an impressive start given the team reached just four points (1-21-2) last season.
The Thunderbirds will look to keep their strong start going next weekend when they host the CIS defending champion Calgary Dinos. Games will be played at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre.
-30-
