VANCOUVER - Bring on the Bisons.
The UBC Thunderbirds won 3-2 in overtime in Alberta on Saturday night, their 10th win in their past 11 games. The Thunderbirds head into the Canada West playoffs as the hottest team in the conference, having secured the third seed and home-ice advantage in the first round. They'll host the Manitoba Bisons, the sixth-seed, in Vancouver next weekend.
BOX SCORE
For the second night in a row, Alberta got an early 2-0 lead but UBC fought back to tie it and win it in extra time. While Friday night required a shootout, Saturday night was decided earlier when
Christi Capozzi (Kelowna, BC) sealed the game in the overtime period.
The Pandas came out hungry early, sensing their last chance to leapfrog UBC for the third seed and looking to avoid being swept by the Thunderbirds for the first time ever. Hannah Mousek scored a power play goal late in the period and Alison Campbell followed up with an even-strength tally not long after. It was the second night in a row that UBC started out slowly and required adjustments at the intermission.
“We weren't as flat as we were yesterday in the first,” said Thomas. “But then we made a couple of bad plays and they capitalized. We got a little unfocused as well, after the first goal, and they capitalized on that, too.”
From there, goaltender
Samantha Langford (Pense, SK) settled down, finishing with 18 saves on the night. Langford finishes the regular season qualified for the goaltending leaderboard and joins teammate
Danielle Dube (Vancouver, BC) in the top-four in goals against average and save percentage.
After a back-and-forth second period, UBC found a sense of urgency in the third.
Nikola Brown-John (Monte Lake, BC) had an unassisted marker four minutes in, and then
Stephanie Schaupmeyer (Kelowna, BC) tied the game with three minutes to go. Brown-John has been a nice surprise since moving from the blue-line to the centre position, providing an additional scoring punch up front with two goals on the weekend and four in the new year. She split time between forward and defence in this one as the team ended up thin on the back-end at times.
“She's stepped up,” said head coach
Graham Thomas. “She's been Ms. Versatility. It's a really important role and she's playing it really well.”
Schaupmeyer also picked up an assist on Capozzi's overtime winner, tying her for second in conference scoring among rookies with 13 points. Teammate
Nicole Saxvik (North Vancouver, BC) also had an assist and is fourth in rookie scoring with 12 points.
“We outplayed them in the third, we really went after them,” said Thomas. “And it's a great sign to be able to turn it around like that. It's a special group here.”
The win wraps up a great regular season for UBC, who shattered the program's previous record for wins (eight). This year also marks the first time UBC will host a playoff game.
“We had a great regular season,” said Thomas. “And I'm proud of the girls. But it's over now. Playoffs are a whole new season and we want to be focused and ready and maintain our momentum.”
The arena and game times are still to be determined for this coming weekend, but UBC at least knows they'll be hosting Manitoba. Manitoba finished 10-12-6 and lost three of their four match-ups against UBC, though two went to overtime or a shootout.
