Vancouver, BC - In what was arguably their most thrilling and energetic performance of the season, the UBC women's hockey team defeated the Calgary Dinos 3-2 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Friday night. With the victory UBC takes a 1-0 series lead in the best of three Canada West quarter final.
Tied at 2-2 after 60 minutes of hockey, the game went into sudden death overtime. Just 4:12 into first extra period, rookie
Melissa Goodwin jumped on a loose puck in front and made no mistake beating Amanda Tapp for the game winner.
Goodwin's game winner came just moments after Thunderbirds goaltender
Danielle Dube made a huge glove save, taking away what looked like a for sure goal for Sinead Tracey. Dube was outstanding on the evening stopping 24 of 26 shots she faced.
"Our line just played off the momentum of the previous line and the hard work of my linemates paid off," said
Melissa Goodwin, "I ended up alone in front of the net and all that was running through my head was to do it for my injured Valentine game inspiration, Nadine Elizabeth Burgess."
Burgess injured her knee in practice early in the week and looks to be done for the playoffs.
Captain
Christi Capozzi and assistant captain
Sarah Casorso were also gamechangers on Friday, both putting on stellar performances to carry their team to the win. Capozzi had an assist and Casorso contributed her team's second goal.
The 'Birds were dominant through the opening frame, carrying the momentum over 20 minutes and outshooting the Dinos 11-8, however the game would remain scoreless after the opening frame.
Just past the midway point of the second period, the first goal of the game came off the stick of Calgary's Jessyka Holt who was right on the doorstep and beat Dube with a wrister to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
UBC fired right back though, as
Nicole Saxvik jumped on a rebound in front off a Capozzi point shot and made no mistake for her first goal of the post season and evening the score at 1-1 on the power play.
The Dinos took the lead just over five minutes into the final frame as Erika Mitschke fired a shot past Dube to make it 2-1. But Thunderbirds blue liner
Sarah Casorso had something to say about that, potting the equalizer on a powerplay with help from
Hannah Heisler and
Nikola Brown-John. Amidst heavy pressure from UBC, Calgary would narrowly sneak through with matters still tied up 2-2 when time ran out on the period. Shots were 31-25 for UBC through 60 minutes.
"It was gonna be a big game to set the tempo for playoffs and I think, mentally, everyone was just ready to go," said Thunderbirds assistant captain
Sarah Casorso. "That translated onto the ice and it went from there. [Tomorrow] I think we're going to be riding on the success and energy of tonight, and I have no doubt that that's going to translate into the game for everybody."
Special teams was a big factor, especially for UBC. The Thunderbirds powerplay – ranked #1 during the regular season – went 2-for-5 on the night. Calgary's powerplay went 0-for-3.
In net for Calgary, Tapp went on to stop 33 of 36 shots she faced.
Game two of the best of three series is set for 7:00 pm Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
