A day after clinching a playoff berth, the UBC Thunderbirds defeated Mount Royal 4-1 for their third consecutive victory on Saturday. The red-hot Thunderbirds have now won six of their last seven games, with the only defeat coming in a shootout.
The Thunderbirds were led by junior defenceman
Sarah Casorso (Kelowna, BC), who scored her second goal of the season and added three assists for her first career four-point night. The outburst gives her 11 points on the season, pushing her to fifth in the conference in scoring by defencemen.
Samantha Langford (Pense, SK) also played a big role for UBC, turning away 21 shots. Michelle Ziegler's goal at 11:17 of the third period snapped a personal shutout streak of 127 minutes for Langford, who has excelled in her role splitting the starting duties. Langford now sports a .927 save percentage and a 2.17 goals against average, both good for top-six in the conference.
“We came out playing much better,” said head coach
Graham Thomas. “We continued on from where we left off with the third period last night.
“We had some better team play and moved the puck much better. It was a really complete team effort with all of our lines contributing. We let up in the third a bit, though, getting a bit too anxious to play offense. So we still have things to work on.”
Ziegler's goal, which was an unassisted marker and her first of the season, came after UBC had already built up a 4-0 lead.
Tatiana Rafter (Winnipeg, MB) opened the scoring on the power play just 1:42 into the game, with Casorso scoring her goal on the power play in the first as well.
In the second period, leading scorer
Rebecca Unrau (Humboldt, SK) scored her tenth goal of the campaign, pushing her to seventh in league scoring with 21 points.
Haneet Parhar (West Vancouver, BC) then added her fourth of the season for good measure.
It was an impressive team effort a night after the Thunderbirds came out a bit flat in the first 40 minutes before securing a shootout victory. It was an especially strong special teams performance, as the power play went two-for-six while the penalty kill shut down all seven Cougar opportunities.
“It's a good time to be playing well,” said Thomas. “As long as keep it going into the playoffs. We're playing good hockey.”
Their play has been enough to net the T-Birds 13 of a possible 14 points during the current streak. While they haven't been able to rise past fourth place in the Canada West conference yet, they are now just a point back of Regina and Alberta for second place, although Regina is yet to play today.
In addition, the hot streak gives the Thunderbirds an eight-point cushion over fifth place Manitoba, meaning they are on the verge of clinching their first ever home-ice advantage in the playoffs. The top two teams in the conference receive a first round bye and then host a semi-final playoff series, while the third and fourth place teams host a quarter-final playoff series.
Since the program's inception in 1997-98, UBC has never hosted a playoff game and has rarely made the playoffs, with this season being the first time in four years. The 'Birds have blown past their previous program high for wins with their 13-7-4 record this season.
UBC will look to continue to build momentum as the playoffs draw closer, returning home to host Manitoba next weekend at Protrans Arena. Mount Royal will hit the road to take on Lethbridge.
