Vancouver, BC - With seventy seconds left in regulation time
Sarah Casorso scored the game winning goal to give the UBC Thunderbirds a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Dinos at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre Saturday night. With the win the 'Birds sweep the best-of-three quarter-final series 2-0 and now move on to the Canada West semi-finals next weekend where they will take on the Saskatchewan Huskies.
Leading 3-1 heading into the final period, the Thunderbirds were looking to lock it down in the final frame, but the Calgary Dinos had other ideas. Heather Berzins scored just past the midway point of the third period for Calgary to cut the lead to 3-2. With under four minutes remaining and the Thunderbirds short handed, the Dinos scored the equalizer. Kelsie Lang beat
Danielle Lemon to make it a 3-3 game with 3:30 remaining. However, just like they have done all year, UBC had an answer. With just 1:10 remaining, assistant captain
Sarah Casorso took matters into her own hands and went end to end, eventually crashing into the Dinos net along with the puck to score the game winning goal. Â 4-3 was the final.
"I wasn't even thinking, I was just doing," said
Sarah Casorso about the game winning goal. "Nothing really is going through your head except for getting to the net."
"Tonight was just one of those wins where it wasn't necessarily how we drew it up, but due to their team just playing with so much heart and desperation, that's when we had to adjust and play through it," said Thunderbirds head coach
Graham Thomas. " When you're playing against a desperate team that's playing really hard, things aren't always going to go perfectly and so what's needed to rise above it is character and that's what happened tonight. Everybody stepped up and our bench stayed positive and rallied when we could've easily collapsed a few times, but we just fought back and that's just character. That's playoff hockey. It was a gritty win, and you're gonna need those in playoffs."
UBC was stellar on the penalty kill this evening, allowing just one goal on eight opportunities, while finishing the night 0-for-5 on their own power plays.Â
Lemon got the start in net and was outstanding. She stopped 17 of 20 shots she faced for her first career playoff victory.
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With under two minutes remaining in the opening frame UBC scored two goals 28 seconds apart to take a 2-0 lead.
Tatiana Rafter, the Canada West's leading scoring during the regular season, opened the scoring and then it was
Nikola Brown-John beating Hayley Dowling with a nice shot to put the home side in front by two goals through 20 minutes of play.
Calgary struck back five minutes into the second period when an unlucky bounce landed in Lemon's crease and was popped in by the Dinos Erika Mitschke, narrowing UBC's lead to one.
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With 3:50 on the clock rookie forward
Melissa Goodwin put the 'Birds up 3-1 after rookies
Katie Zinn and
Hannah Heisler did work along the end boards to win the puck. That's how the score remained after 40 minutes.
With the victory the Thunderbirds advance to the Canada West semi-final where they will face off against the Saskatchewan Huskies in a best-of-three series beginning next Friday in Saskatoon. UBC finished the year 2-2 against the Huskies, but 0-2 at Rutherford Arena.
