VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds women's hockey team is back in action for a two-game weekend series against the Saskatchewan Huskies. Puck drop for both contests, on Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14, is slated for 7:00 p.m. (PT) at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
 
Coming off a bye week, the Thunderbirds are looking to improve on their 5-3-1-1 record, which includes two wins against the Huskies, and has earned them a third-place ranking in the Canada West standings. Though UBC has beaten Saskatchewan twice, the Huskies currently sit atop conference table with a 5-2-2-1 record.
 
"It's going to be a good series," UBC head coach Graham Thomas said of the upcoming weekend. "They're a really good team and we're fighting for some critical points. It's almost a battle for first, depending on what  Lethbridge [who rank second in Canada West] does this weekend, but it's going to be intense and we're looking forward to the challenge."
 
Speaking of challenges, UBC's biggest will be corralling the Huskies' formidable power play and taking advantage of their own. With a 38.1 power play %, Saskatchewan leads the division by a large margin. Out of the 21 opportunities they have had, they have scored eight times. The Thunderbirds, who have struggled on the man advantage, only have five goals for in 53 opportunities for a 9.4 % conversion rate.
 
"Our special teams need some improvement," said Coach Thomas. "This week, we were just trying to really focus on ourselves. We're mindful of them, we know they've got really good specialty teams, so we've just been focusing on getting some review of our own systems, getting back to it, and looking at a few things that they do that we have to be prepared for. We've got to be ready and really good on both the penalty kill and the power play."
 
Though the 'Birds have struggled on the powerplay, their overall offense is still clicking, as the team's 24 goals have them tied for third place in the conference. Individually, the T-Birds are led by fifth-year forward Rebecca Unrau (Humboldt, Sask.), who sits second in the Canada West scoring race with seven goals and 11 points, and third-year forward Kathleen Cahoon (Calgary, Alta.), who has notched seven points in eight games.