VANCOUVER - The winning ways continued for the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday night as they won their third straight game, beating the Lethbridge Pronghorns 4-1 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
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The win is also the team's tenth on the season, improving their record to 10-7-3. With just eight games left to play, UBC has already won two more games than in any previous season in the program's history. It's put the team in an unfamiliar situation, playing with leads and sustaining success. On Friday, they almost let the lead slip away.
“Our message was that we can't give up our composure (again),” said head coach
Graham Thomas. “We're learning and we're getting more experience at it.”
UBC jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period and the game looked to possibly be a repeat of Friday night, when the Thunderbirds had a three-goal lead until late.
Dayle Poulin (Prince George, BC) scored the first goal, burying a pass from
Haneet Parhar (West Vancouver, BC), who had kept the puck in at the blueline. Shortly after,
Nikola Brown-John (Monte Lake, BC) fired a puck at the net from the corner, banging it off a Pronghorn defender and in.
From there, the Birds let off the gas a bit, taking a penalty and allowing a power play goal when Kirsten Reeves banked a wrist-shot off the iron and in.
UBC would find their stride again in the third period, taking control back from the Pronghorns. Parhar was again in on the action, sniping a great wrist shot into the top corner after receiving a nice, soft pass from
Sarah Casorso (Kelowna, BC). Parhar would then add an empty netter, giving her three points and her first multi-goal game of her CIS career.
“Sarah made a really good pass,” said Parhar, sharing the love. “The turnaround from last year has been incredible. To see how much this team has improved, it's incredible.”
Danielle Dube (Vancouver, BC) came up big again for the Thunderbirds on the defensive end, turning away 26 shots.
The weekend provided four valuable points for the Thunderbirds in a wild Canada West conference. With Regina having lost three straight games, UBC has gained six points and sit just three points out of third place and four out of second. The third and fourth seeds get to host a playoff series, while the top two seeds receive a bye through the first round.
Manitoba has also strung together five straight wins and sit on UBC's tail, just two points back. By beating Lethbridge, however, UBC is now eight points up on the playoff cut-off seventh place, where the Pronghorns sit. Basically, things would have to go off the rails for the Thunderbirds to miss the playoffs.
Of course, that can't be the focus, yet. While the separation is nice, there is still too much work to be done for the Thunderbirds, and nobody is content with “only” setting the program's win record.
“We've gotta be proud of what we've done,” said Thomas. “Every game is a playoff atmosphere for us, and that will help us going into the playoffs.”
UBC hosts Saskatchewan next weekend in Vancouver.
