VANCOUVER – The Calgary Dinos earned a weekend split with the UBC Thunderbirds, winning Saturday's Canada West women's hockey matchup 4-3 in double overtime at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver.
 
Kathleen Cahoon (Calgary) said she was most proud of her team's resilience in their match.
 
"They're a really physical team and we didn't back down from them," she said. "I think we really pushed hard for a full 60 minutes."
 
The loss will follow the team into the break, "it's going to be in the back of our minds for this whole break," said Cahoon. "Coming out the next half of the season it's going to just fire us and we're going to build off of it."
 
Alexandra Vafina, a forward from Chelyabinsk, Russia, walked around the UBC defence and roofed her shot into the top corner 32 seconds into double overtime to give her team the win.
 
Despite being outshot 24-14, the Dinos came back from three one-goal deficits to triumph.
 
Delaney Frey, Iya Gavrilova and Kelsie Lang had the other Calgary goals while Logan Boyd (Waterdown, Ont.), Melissa Goodwin (Burlington, Ont.) and Rebecca Unrau (Humboldt, Sask.) tallied for the home team
 
UBC controlled possession for most of the opening 20, out-shooting the Dinos 9-6.
 
The Thunderbirds counted their first goal of the contest on a power play with two Dinos in the penalty box. At 10:34, Kelly Murray's (Calgary) shot from the point hit Mathea Fischer (Oslo, Norway). Then Boyd popped the loose puck over Calgary goaltender Sarah Murray to make it 1-0 UBC.
 
Calgary responded in the last three minutes of the first period. In a scramble in front of the goal, Frey buried a pass from Vafina to tie the game 1-1.
 
UBC scored two beauties in the second frame. First, at 8:10, Cahoon blocked a Dinos pass in the neutral zone and beats the defence to the puck. She broke towards the goal with Goodwin. Cahoon fired a shot on Murray, who made the save, but wasn't able to stop Goodwin's attempt on the rebound.
 
The Dinos tied the game again at 14:22 as Gavrilova converted her breakaway chance after receiving an outlet pass from Stephanie Zvonkovic. Gavrilova went five-hole on the UBC goalie to make it 2-2.
 
The Thunderbirds took the lead again less than four minutes later. The line of Unrau, Celine Tardif (Parksville, B.C.) and Hannah Clayton-Carroll (Vancouver), mounted a 3-on-2 attack. Tardif carried the puck over the blue line on the left wing and passed over to Clayton-Carroll. The rookie forward form Vancouver dumped the puck over to Unrau on the right wing. She fired and beat Murray glove side. Unrau's eighth goal was scored at 17:57
 
The tying goal for Calgary came midway through the third period as fourth-year defenceman Lang netted her shot from the point. At 8:31, the puck found the open top-right corner to make it 3-3.
 
Murray stopped 21 of 24 UBC shots for the win. The Dinos were 0-for-2 on the power play while the Thunderbirds scored once on six tries.
 
Both teams are done for the 2015 calendar year and will resume league play in 2016. Calgary will host Regina Jan. 8-9, while UBC will entertain Mt. Royal in Vancouver on the same weekend.

Veteran forward and UBC points leader, Unrau, said after the game, "we're going to bring it all together, take a little break, and come back strong than ever."

Unrau has 13 points this season, a total made up of eight goals and five assists. She is currently seventh in the Canada West league for points.