Saskatoon, SK – The UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey road woes continue as they fell to the Saskatchewan Huskies 6-3 on Friday evening, extending the team's road winless streak to five games. Saskatchewan's Derek Hulak collected four points on the night giving him an edge in the Canada West scoring race, while two other Huskies had three-point nights.
The Huskies improve to 5-6-0 on the season while the Thunderbirds fall to 3-7-1 and are 0-5 away from home.
Matthew Spafford opened the games scoring as the Huskies forward deposited his second of the year after UBC's
Matt Hewitt made the initial save off a Matthew Delahey point shot.
Shortly after, the Thunderbirds got into penalty trouble and the Huskies would convert on their first opportunity of the game. Kenton Dulle was able to find Ryan McDonald on a cross-ice pass, who made no mistake wiring one past Hewitt, his third of the year.
Saskatchewan showed why they're a threat on the penalty kill as a 2 on 1 nearly resulted in a three-goal deficit for UBC. Luckily for the Thunderbirds, Bosch drilled it off the post as the Thunderbirds struggled out of the gate, unable to muster a shot until just shy of the halfway point of the opening frame.
The Huskies caught a break early in the second period as a Derek Hulak wraparound attempt deflected off a UBC defender's skate and past Hewitt, making the game 3-0.
While on a 5-on-3, Ryan McDonald, a former 37-goal scorer for the WHL's Prince Albert Raiders, was robbed by Hewitt on a one timer, his best save on the evening. The Huskies would capitalize, moments later; however, as Spafford collected his second of the night as the Huskies put Hewitt out of position with several cross-ice feeds.
UBC's
Steven Stanford, the former Saskatoon Blade, replaced Hewitt to start the third period. Hewitt finished the game with 28 saves on 32 shots.
The Thunderbirds got on the board early in the third as Huskies goaltender Ryan Holfield failed to clear the puck out of the zone, which opened the door for
Nick Buonassisi as he deflected in a
Neil Manning point shot.
The Huskies would respond by adding two more of their own as Hulak sprung Delahey who was stopped by Stanford, but Brennan Bosch was able to bury the rebound while Andrew Bailey capitalized on a shorthanded breakaway putting one top shelf. Bailey's tally was the third shorthanded marker of the season for the Huskies, good for third in the CIS in that department.
Cole Wilson added the first of the 'Birds two late tallies on an odd-man rush off a defensive breakdown, his team leading 13
th point of the year. A scrum between the Huskies Zak Stebner and UBC's
Matt Wray led the way for Manning to capitalize on a 5-on-3 power play to finish off the game's scoring, with the final being 6-3 in favour of the Huskies.
Dulle and Delahey finished the night with three assists apiece while Hulak had a goal and three assists.
Nate Fleming finished with a multi-point game for UBC, as did Wilson and Manning.
Stanford finished with 9 saves in relief while Saskatchewan's Holfield made 25 saves on the night. UBC finished the night 2-for-7 on the power play while the Huskies went 2-of-4 on the man-advantage.
The Thunderbirds will look to get off to a better start tomorrow and get the all-important first goal as the weekend's second and final game goes off at 5:00 pm PST at Rutherford Rink in Saskatoon.
