Vancouver, BC - Despite trailing by three goals early in the first period, the UBC Thunderbirds were able to rebound in a comeback victory defeating the Regina Cougars 5-4 Friday evening at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Nick Buonassisi scored the final two goals late in the third period to give the Thunderbirds their first victory of the season.
Liam Brennan opened the game's scoring early on a soft shot from the point that was tipped in traffic and past UBC goaltender
Steven Stanford, who made his third consecutive start to begin the season.
Regina added two more goals before the six minute mark of the first period courtesy Troy Hunter and a power-play marker from Christian Magnus to put the Cougars up 3-0.
After conceding three goals on eight shots, Stanford was relieved by
Matt Hewitt to start the second period.
Mid-way through the second frame, UBC's
Nate Fleming got the Thunderbirds on the board beating Regina goaltender Lucas Gore after the goalie lost his stick.
Neil Manning and
Cole Wilson were given assists on Fleming's first of the season.
With five minutes remaining in the second, captain
Ben Schmidt was forced to leave the game after a hit to the head from Regina's Ryan Dech but fortunately returned shortly after. UBC capitalized on the man-advantage thanks to a rocket from the slot courtesy
Anthony Bardaro, his first of the season.
Regina was able to restore their cushion late in the second period on the man-advantage as Mark Schneider put away his second of the season thanks to a feed from Brock Appleyard. 4-2 is how things stood through 40 mintues of play.
Entering the third period down by two, the Thunderbirds got off to a hot start cutting the lead to one, 1:53 into the period thanks to a beauty from
Brad Hoban who made no mistake burying a feed from the corner from Bardaro.
The Thunderbirds tied the game with less than seven minutes remaining after a
Nick Buonassisi backhand was deflected through the five hole of Gore.
With just under two minutes remaining, Buonassisi buried his second of the game completing the UBC comeback.
UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic praised the team's resilience after trailing 3-0 and 4-2 during the game.
"I loved the character that our team showed this evening, there was no panic, and I thought we were very effective in shutting down the opponent for the remaining 55 minutes after trailing early. We started crashing the net and putting pucks on goal while our top line stepped up when we needed them too," said Dragicevic.
Schneider of Regina and UBC's Fleming and Wilson all had three points on the night while three other T-Birds had two.
Hewitt finished the game with nine saves on 10 shots in relief giving the Thunderbirds their first victory of the season. Gore was peppered with 36 shots and made 31 saves in the Regina loss.
Regina, which falls to 2-3-0, was two for six on the man-advantage this evening while UBC, which improves to 1-2-0, was one for three on the power play.
The Thunderbirds will look to sweep the weekend series against the Cougars tomorrow evening at 7:00 pm at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbirds Sport Centre.
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