The University of British Columbia Athletics

REGINA, SK - The UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team got their first taste of Canada West competition this past weekend at the University of Regina Summer Challenge playing three games in three nights and finishing with a record of 2-1-0. The exhibition tournament featured seven of the eight teams from the Canada West, with Mount Royal being the only team not taking part.

UBC played its best game on Friday night defeating the defending CIS Champion University of Alberta Golden Bears 4-1. 

"We played with energy and purpose and were extremely determined without the puck," said Tyler Kuntz, who is set for his first season at the helm of the UBC Thunderbirds program. "We played how we want to play and what we are working towards as a group."

On Saturday night the Thunderbirds fell 4-3 to the Calgary Dinos. Calgary scored the game winner with just 1.9 seconds left on the clocks, this was just 10 seconds after Brad Hoban was stopped on a breakaway. 

"It took us a while to get our legs going against Calgary, but we punched through and kept the game close due to goaltending and timely goals on special teams," said Kuntz. 

The final game on Sunday saw the Thunderbirds jump out to a 4-1 first period lead over Lethbridge and then hold on for a 5-4 victory. 

"Playing our third game in less than 48 hours, Sunday was a real grind," said Kuntz. "We had good tempo in the first period and then lost it during the remainder of the game. Both teams got into penalty troubles and we failed to capitalize on a 5-on-3 and in turn they managed to capitalize on their own power play chances which got them back into the game. We tightened things up late in the third to earn the win."

All in all Kuntz was happy with his team performance this weekend against three quality opponents, but knows his group still has lots of room to improve, including being more aggressive not the puck carrier and getting more pucks and bodies to the opposing goal on a consistent basis.

The Thunderbirds will open up the Canada West regular season on home ice September 26-27 against the University of Alberta. Puck drop is 7:00 pm both nights at Father Bauer Arena.