Vancouver – Despite playing one of the best games in recent weeks, the UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team left the ice with yet another loss, dropping its second of two games against the Manitoba Bisons by a score of 6-4. The Thunderbirds fought back from being down on two occasions, but two goals in the second half of the third period gave Manitoba the win Saturday night.
"I thought we outplayed them," said UBC Head Coach Milan Dragicevic. "I thought we carried the play. We're struggling with a confidence issue right from our goaltending to our defense and forwards and thought we deserved a better fate tonight. When you're losing bad things tend to happen and often times those mistakes are magnified."
The Thunderbirds are currently in the midst of a five-game slump dating back to early November. With the loss, UBC falls to 3-10-1 and have surrendered six goals in three of its past four contests.
UBC controlled the early momentum and managed to get on the board first as
Neil Manning wired one from the faceoff circle that beat Bisons' goalie Joe Caligiuri. The power play goal came four minutes into the game as
Nate Fleming and
Brad Hoban collected the assists.
The lead lasted a mere 17 seconds as the Bisons' Jordan Depape collected his first career CIS goal as the former Red Deer Rebel fired a seeing-eye puck from the left boards fooling UBC's
Matt Hewitt.
The Bisons' would add another midway through the first as Jesse Paradis cut into the slot and wristed one by Hewitt, beating him five-hole, but once again the opposing team erased that lead moments later. This time it was the Thunderbirds with a nice-bounce back attack that saw
Nate Fleming pot one in from the side of the net after a friendly bounce caromed off the end boards, which left him with an open cage.
Joe Antilla and
Cole Wilson added the assists, with the latter collecting his 15
th point of the year, good for the team lead.
With the score 2-2 entering the second, Caligiuri made a spectacular toe save which sparked the Bisons' who went the other way and potted the go-ahead goal thanks to leading scorer Adam Lewadniuk, who put away his sixth of the year.
The Bisons would extend that lead to two when Brendan Rowinski capitalized on a cross-ice feed from Taylor Dickin making it a 4-2 game for Manitoba.
Well into the third, the Thunderbirds would respond with two unanswered goals from
Luke Lockhart and
Greg Fraser putting the Thunderbirds back in business.
Again, the tie-game didn't last a minute as Luke Cain fired a wrist shot on net fooling Hewitt, surely one he would like back, which gave the Bisons' the lead with less than half a period remaining. Ian Duval would ice the game with just over three minutes remaining on a 2-on-1 with Lewadniuk, who collected his second point on the night.
The Thunderbirds would pull their goalie with two minutes remaining to no avail, unable to muster any legitimate scoring chances as the clock ran out.
"It's frustrating," said Dragicevic after the game. "We have a great group of guys, great leadership, and good character and we're going to turn this thing around. We have to find a way to win, we changed up our lines and some structural things as far as systems and if we keep staying with it, good things are going to happen."
Manitoba finished 0-for-6 on the man-advantage while UBC was 1-for-3. Hewitt finished with 23 saves on the night while the Thunderbirds peppered Caligiuri with 38 shots, turning away 34 of those.
"We need to work on finishing, there were several opportunities where we had a chance to score and they went back the other way and did exactly that," added Dragicevic.
The Thunderbirds hope to get back into the win column next weekend against the Lethbridge Pronghorns in the final weekend series before the Christmas break. The Pronghorns sit in last in the Canada West and are losers of seven straight. UBC are 1-1 against the Pronghorns in their season series and will hit the road for just the second time this month.
The Manitoba Bisons' see their winning streak continue, now at four games after stumbling out of the gate to start the season. The Bisons' remain on the road as they travel to Edmonton to face off one of the best teams in the CIS, the 13-1 Alberta Golden Bears.
