The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – Hannah Heisler scored twice, including the game-winning goal on the power play at 14:38 of the third period, to give her No. 6-ranked UBC Thunderbirds women's hockey team a 3-2 win over the No. 8 University of Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday night in Vancouver.

BOX SCORE
 
With the victory, UBC extended its winning streak to six games and moved into sole possession of first place in the Canada West standings with an 8-2-1 record while Saskatchewan fell into third at 7-3-1.
 
This is the first time ever the Thunderbirds have been alone in first place in the Canada West regular season standings.
 
All three UBC goals were scored on the power plays as the Thunderbirds went 3-for-4 with the player advantage. Saskatchewan didn't score on any of its three power plays.

"The first period was one of the best periods; we've moved the puck…then we got away from that and it was kind of back and forth, then obviously at the start of the third they came at us," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas.
 
Heisler opened the scoring in the first period. Teammate Tatiana Rafter was the only player to notch a goal in the second to add to her lead in the Canada West scoring race Cami Wooster and Julia Flinton replied in the first half of the third period to tie the game.

Commenting after the game, a modest Heisler attributed her two goals to being in the right place at the right time amidst a collective effort. For any spectator, though, it was obvious that more than luck was at play for the first year.
 
At 15:26 of the first period, Heisler opened the scoring when she wired a shot from point into the back of the net, with the assists to Sarah Casorso and Christi Capozzi.
 
Rafter made it 2-0 for the home team on tumbling shot from the slot about five and a half minutes into the second period.
 
But the Huskies regrouped going into the final period. Just 30 seconds into the third, UBC coughed up a costly giveaway in transition to Saskatchewan's top threat Wooster, who slipped the puck into the net past T-Bird goaltender Danielle Dube.
 
Then at 9:37, Saskatchewan's Julia Flinton sailed a shot from just short of the blue line up and over the shoulder of Dube for the tying goal.
 
Suddenly after ten minutes of the third period, the game was tied at two goals apiece.
 
Only a few short minutes later, however, the T-Birds would again take hold of the lead when Heisler tipped in her second power play goal of the game with the helpers going to Casorso and Rafter. That would seal up the 3-2 win for UBC.
 
"[Teams] are not going to let up on us, and sometimes we get that mentality that we can go at 70 percent or sit back and they're just going to quit on us. But that's not the case – they're going to push back even harder," said Thomas. "But I was impressed that the girls responded. The powerplay is something we have been working on, but it's been going really well – ours is in the top of the league and one of the top in the country. They bailed us out tonight."

T-Birds goaltender Danielle Dube stopped 30 of the 32 shots she faced for her sixth victory of the year, while counterpart Cassidy Hendricks made 18 saves on 21 shots.
 
The two teams will face off again in Vancouver on Saturday night at 7 p.m.