The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER - A career night from the reigning CIS/Canada West Athlete of the Week was the difference as the No. 5-ranked UBC Thunderbirds women's hockey team defeated Regina 6-1 Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Tatiana Rafter, who leads the Canada West in goals and points, had a hat trick as well as a pair of assists to finish with five points on the night.

BOX SCORE


Rafter's five points are the most ever by a UBC player in a Canada West game. Her performance also gives her 29 points on the year, which surpasses the UBC record for most points in a season. The previous high mark was 25, set by Kelly James during the 2005-06 campaign.

In speaking after the game, Rafter was thrilled about her team's outstanding game.

"The difference was that we were so fired up … we came out flying," she said. "We had a talk earlier this week and just said for everyone to play their role - whatever that is - and everyone went out there and did exactly that."

UBC head coach Graham Thomas spoke wonders of his team's overall performance against the Cougars.

"Tonight was definitely our best team effort. Some girls had some successes individually, but that all comes from playing well as a group," he said. "We were consistent through three periods, and every defensive pairing, every line – everybody contributed to this win. This is us getting ready for playoffs – this is the way we want to play. We used our speed, our skill, and our physicality when we needed to, and we had great goaltending."

With the victory UBC has now won 13 of its last 14 games and improve to 15-3-1 on the season. Regina falls to 10-7-2.

The 'Birds demonstrated their solid depth on both the offensive and defensive ends, which was also reflected in their shutout penalty kill performance and fruitful power play, scoring on 4 of 9 man-advantages.
 
It was a productive night for a number of other Thunderbirds, too, with Stephanie Schaupmeyer, Rebecca Unrau, Nicole Saxvik, and Sarah Casorso all recording two points.
 
Rafter bagged her first goal of the game low blocker side on the power play at 9:23 in the first period; Saxvik and Payne supplied the assists.
 
Following a turnover in the T-Birds' defensive zone, Regina's Kendra Finch evened up the score at 15:47 in the same period, tipping the puck past Danielle Dube.
 
From behind the net, Saxvik sent a crisp pass to Rafter in the slot, who one-timed her second goal past Regina's Toni Ross 24 seconds into the second period.
 
Off of a flawless mid-air feed by Unrau on the far side, Rafter tipped in her third of the night into the top corner for her league leading 15th goal of the season.
 
Haneet Parhar added one more in the second frame, her first goal of the season, to give the Thunderbirds a 4-1 lead through 40 minutes of play.
 
On a third-period man-advantage, Hannah Heisler redirected a shot past goaltender Jennifer Schmidt to extend UBC's lead to four goals.
 
Amidst yet another man advantage, Casorso potted the Thunderbirds fourth power play goal of the game to round out the scoring and give UBC a 6-1 win.
 
UBC's Dube walked away with the win Friday night, stopping 13 of 14 shots. Schmidt stopped 9 of 11 shots after replacing starting goaltender Ross – who stopped 21 of 25 shots over the first two periods.
 
Regina's power play finished 0-for-4 on the night.
 
Heading into the most intense part of regular season play, coach Thomas knows what it will take for his team to succeed.

"We've got the components and we've got the depth – now we just have to make sure we've got the deliberate execution – that's a term we've been using heading down the stretch."

These two teams will wrap up their season series Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbirds Sports Centre in Vancouver.