Vancouver – With just six games remaining on the schedule, and sitting two points back of the final playoff spot in the Canada West, the UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey squad travels to Calgary this weekend for a pivotal matchup against the Mount Royal Cougars. Two points separate the sixth place Cougars from seventh place UBC, as this weekend's series entails serious playoff implications.
"We have to find a way to get into the playoffs," said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic in advance of this weekend's matchup. "We have to find ways to execute the little details that results in goals and as far as wins and losses go, we control our own destiny right now."
Both teams are coming off weekend splits against the top teams in the nation. UBC won the first of its two game home stand against the top-ranked Calgary Dinos last weekend defeating their division foe in double overtime before conceding the second of two games a day later.
Geordie Wudrick collected a point in each of his first two games with the Thunderbirds including the primary assist on Friday night's game winner, while
Steven Stanford stood tall in net limiting Calgary to just four goals over two games.
Stanford has won five of his past seven regular season starts and owns a 5-4-1 record on the season. Stanford appears to have the edge in net over
Matt Hewitt, who has started just one regular season since mid-November.
Cole Wilson potted two of the Thunderbirds three goals on Friday evening including the game winner while adding an assist on Saturday extending his current point streak to three games, with five points over that span. 2014 has been good for Wilson so far, as he's racked up seven points in his first six games since the start of the new year and is currently in the midst of a career year in assists (14) and points (26).
In similar fashion, Mount Royal went head-to-head with the Alberta Golden Bears this past weekend handing the nation's No. 2 ranked squad just its third loss on the year, in double overtime as well. The Cougars then travelled to Edmonton for the back half of a home and home but fell 6-1 to their Alberta rivals.
Devin Gannon leads the scoring charge for Mount Royal with a nine game point streak coming to an end after Saturday's tilt against the Golden Bears. The Kamloops native has 21 points on the year averaging just shy of a point-per-game. Eric Galbraith has also been hot of late, collecting eight points during his past four games including a hat-trick performance as well as Friday's overtime game winner against Alberta.
Manning the crease for Mount Royal is Dalyn Flette, who has seen the majority of the workload for the Cougars, starting all but two games, with a 9-10-1 record thus far this season. Flette held Alberta to three goals and the victory Friday night but was pulled midway through the second in Saturday's 6-1 loss after allowing four goals on 24 shots.
This weekend marks the second of two weekend series between the Canada West rivals with each team coming away with a victory back in early November. UBC currently owns a record of 8-13-1 while Mount Royal has a slight edge with a 9-12-1 record.
Game one goes off Friday at 6:00 pm (PST) followed by an afternoon tilt at 1:00pm (PST) on Saturday, with live action being streamed
here.
