Vancouver, BC – The UBC Thunderbirds spoiled the Mount Royal Cougars' first game as a nationally-ranked team beating the visiting Cougars by a 5-3 score Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Not only did the Thunderbirds hand the No. 5-ranked Cougars their first loss of the season, UBC more than doubled the amount of goals that any other team had managed against the Cougars this season.
"Tonight was a big game for us and to come out on top with the victory after playing some strong hockey against the best teams in the Canada West, this improves our confidence moving forward," added head coach
Tyler Kuntz post-game.
In total, 12 T-Birds got their names on the score sheet tonight thanks to some strong secondary scoring from
Luke Lockhart and
Robert Lindores, who scored his first career CIS goal.
Cole Wilson and
Nick Buonassisi also scored for the Thunderbirds while Tyler Jewitt, Scott McKay, and Matt Strong scored in periods one through three, respectively, for the Cougars.
Greg Fraser got in on the fun late in the game and sealed the 5-3 victory with an empty-netter.
UBC's
Matt Hewitt finished the game with 29 saves while his counterpart, Dalyn Flette made 22 saves, the first time this season the net minder has allowed in excess of two goals in a single game. The Thunderbirds finished 0-for-4 on the power play while the Cougars were 1-for-3.
The first period had a little bit of everything, as there was scoring, power play opportunities, and plenty of neutral zone giveaways that led to scoring chances. For just the second time this season, the Thunderbirds had a first period lead thanks to a goal from Buonassisi at the 9:02 mark of the opening frame. A few plays after being robbed on a breakaway, Buonassisi took advantage of a Dalyn Flette giveaway behind the net finding some open space out front before putting away the icebreaker. The goal was Buonassisi's first point of the season following a 14-point rookie campaign last season.
Six minutes later, on a harmless looking play from the left hash mark, Jewitt got the Cougars on the board as the shot made its way through traffic fooling Hewitt tying the game up at one apiece.
The Thunderbirds enjoyed a 14-9 shot advantage but finished 0-for-2 on the power playl in the first period, plagued by the aggressive penalty kill on the part of Mount Royal. Entering tonight's game, Mount Royal was ranked second in the Canada West on the penalty kill, second only to the Saskatchewan Huskies.
The T-Birds took its second lead of the game in the second as Lindores made it a memorable night scoring his first career CIS goal on a textbook play.
Jason Yee initiated the breakout, feeding Jesse Hilton who found an open Lindores at the top of the slot on the odd-man rush. Lindores is a product of the Surrey Eagles of the BCHL and played most recently in the NCAA Division I with Northern Michigan University before transferring to UBC.
The Thunderbirds opened up a two-goal advantage 7:34 into the second frame giving proof to the adage 'the best defense is a good offense,' as Lockhart potted his first of the season and the team's first shorthanded goal of the season. Lockhart was sprung on a partial break by
Ben Schmidt and got Flette out of position after faking a slap shot coming down the right wing.
UBC would follow that goal up with another penalty, however, and be tasked with killing off a two-man advantage, a feat the team couldn't manage. The Cougars cut the deficit to one on another point shot that looked to be tipped on the way to the net through traffic. McKay was credited with the tally, his second of the season, giving him a multi-point night for the second time in his previous three games.
The teams would enjoy 10 minutes of even strength hockey for the remainder of the second period but neither team could break the 3-2 score line in favour of the UBC Thunderbirds.
Two minutes into the third, the Thunderbirds most clutch scorer gave his team a crucial two-goal advantage. Wilson was able to pounce on a loose puck that snuck through Flette and was there for the taking as it was trickling toward the goal line before the fourth-year veteran changed that.
Mount Royal would give the Thunderbirds another scare as the visitors once again responded with a goal after being in a two-goal hole. D-Man Strong continued the trend of wrecking havoc on Hewitt with long-range shots as a shot from the point once again made it through traffic. Fraser was the last of the game's scorers as the forward scored an empty netter.
With the win, the Thunderbirds improve to 2-2-1 while the Cougars drop to 4-1-0 on the season, thus concluding the run of undefeated teams in the Canada West as the Saskatchewan Huskies lost on Friday as well. The team also welcomed back
Brad Hoban and Yee to the lineup. Hoban finished the night with a +1 rating, while Yee had an assist and was a +3.
Both teams will battle it out at 2:00 pm tomorrow afternoon at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in what will be either a weekend sweep or split for the Thunderbirds.
