It's a very important weekend for the UBC Thunderbirds women's hockey team as the battle for Canada West playoff seeding continues.
UBC will host Saskatchewan for a pair of games at The Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Friday and Saturday, and a couple of wins or a couple of losses could send the Thunderbirds up or down a few spots in the standings.
Currently in fourth place with a 10-7-3 record, UBC is just four points behind Alberta for second but also just five points up on Saskatchewan, who sit in sixth. Perhaps most important, the Thunderbirds are eight points up on seventh-place Lethbridge, who represent the “last team out” for the playoffs. With just six games to play after this weekend, that margin is getting more and more secure.
“We've had some good practices but some not so great practices,” said head coach
Graham Thomas. “I didn't have a great feeling about practices as a whole this week. So we need to really look at where we've come from and realize it's a new week with more work to do.
“We want to have the best possibility to, not just make the playoffs, but be successful and hopefully host some playoff games.”
Of course, Thomas won't let his team get ahead of themselves. If that was a worry last weekend, coming off a victory over Calgary and with the chance to set the program's all-time win mark for a season, it didn't show. UBC beat Lethbridge 5-3 and 4-1, extending their winning streak to three games.
Saskatchewan comes in to Vancouver after a weekend split at home against Alberta. The Huskies have a potent offensive attack with three players in the top-10 in conference scoring. Danny Stone, along with sisters Cara and Cami Wooster make up the offensive trio that average more than three points per game between them.
UBC utilizes a more balanced offensive attack, although
Rebecca Unrau (Humboldt, SK) and
Tatiana Rafter (Winnipeg, MB) are both in the top-20 in scoring. They've also been backed by the conference's top goaltender in
Danielle Dube (Vancouver, BC), who has started the past four games.
The Thunderbirds have carved out a reputation for their special teams play, ranking third on the power play and fourth on the penalty kill. They've also been extremely disciplined, heading to the penalty box less than any other team.
When the two teams met earlier in the season in Saskatchewan, UBC took home four points, beating the Huskies 5-4 in overtime and then winning 3-2 in regulation. In that series, Rafter and
Kaitlin Imai (Coquitlam, BC) each racked up four points.
“This weekend is a really pivotal weekend,” said Thomas. “Lethbridge was in that spot last weekend and now it's Saskatchewan in that spot. It's gonna be a tough weekend and we've got to be ready to go. Saskatchewan is skilled and they'll be really hungry.”
UBC will look to make it a season sweep of the Huskies, further cementing themselves as a playoff threat.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. both nights.
