Vancouver, BC - The UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team wraps up their pre-Christmas schedule with a weekend home stand against the Regina Cougars Friday and Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. The 'Birds (8-5-1) currently sit in fourth place in the Canada West, one point back of Manitoba for third, while the Cougars (6-6-2) are three points behind UBC in sixth place.
The Thunderbirds are coming off back to back losses to the number one ranked team in the nation, the Alberta Golden Bears. In the first game they lost 2-0 with an empty netter and in the second game they fell 6-2, but trailed just 2-1 after 40 minutes. With the two wins, the Golden Bears extended their winning streak to 10 games, while taking the 'Birds down a notch.
"It was a humbling experience for us," said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. "We were going in on a high (four game winning streak) and we were beaten soundly by the number one team in the country and learned a valuable lesson in the process. Teams are gunning for us, they are ready for us. Maybe in the past teams took us for granted and didn't give us the respect we deserved, but now we have been ranked in the top ten twice this year and teams are prepared and ready to play us and that was a big difference."
Despite the set back, the Thunderbirds are on pace for their best season ever under Dragievic, now in his 10th year as head coach. They are 0-4 versus Alberta and Saskatchewan this season (both were ranked #1 in the country when UBC played them), but 8-1-1 against the rest of the conference.
"We have to win the games that we can win and to us that is the most important thing heading into the final weekend before our break," said Dragicevic.
Regina comes into the weeknd having picked up just one point in their last four games and were outscored 13-2 in two losses to the Manitoba Bisons a week ago. The Cougars have struggled to score goals this year, but rely heavily on their goaltending tandem of Lucas Gore and Andrew Hayes who have split the duties this season between the pipes. Tyler Henry is their leading scorer with eight goals and 13 points.
Max Grassi (North Vancouver, BC) and
Nate Fleming (St.Albert, AB) are tied for the team lead in scoring with 13 points, while
Neil Manning (Nanaimo, BC) is tops in assists with 12, and
Scott Wasden (West Kelowna, BC) is the top goal man with eight markers on the year.
Jordan White (Surrey, BC), who has started the last five games in net, is 6-4 on the year with a 2.55 goals against average, and a .917 save percentage.
"Last weekend is behind us. We have had a couple of real good practices and are looking forward to taking on Regina," said Dragicevic following Wednesday's workout. "They are a good, physical team that work hard and have good goaltending. They tend to block a lot of shots and should be a good test for us."
Having already played everybody in the conference twice, this weekend marks the beginning of the second half of the season. UBC took three of a possible four points off Regina back in late September to kick off the season. The Thunderbirds won 4-3 and lost 5-4 in a shootout.
Heading into last weekend, the 'Birds were the number two team in the league in goals for, but only managed two goals in two games against the Bears. Dragicevic knows to be successful offensively, the goals don't always need to be pretty.
"What concerns me is the fact that we didn't get a lot of opportunities. We have to start shooting the puck from everywhere, cycle the puck, create traffic in front, and get more garbage goals. That is what we need to be doing to be successful."
Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm Friday November 30 and Saturday December 1.
