EDMONTON – It took two overtime periods, but the UBC Thunderbirds were able to skate away from Edmonton with a thrilling 3-2 win over the University of Alberta Pandas hockey team, Saturday afternoon at Clare Drake Arena.
Logan Boyd scored the winner 11 seconds into the second overtime period, which was her second of the game, while
Mairead Bast scored the other goal for the victorious Thunderbirds. Abby Benning and Autumn MacDougall scored for Alberta.
With the win, UBC (5-1-0) captures five of a possible six points from the Pandas, sweeping Alberta following the 2-0 win the previous night. Alberta, meanwhile, drop their fourth-straight decision – three of which have come in extra time – descending their record to 2-2-2.
"It was a fast-paced game. You have to give Alberta a ton of credit, " said UBC Head Coach
Graham Thomas. " They came at us really hard. We went down and showed really strong character to come back after getting scored on late and then to win it in overtime."
Similar to Game 1, the visiting side opened the scoring midway through the first period. Bast, who received the puck at the point from Canada West point leader
Nicole Saxvik, wired a shot from distance past a screened Dayna Owen to give UBC the 1-0 edge.
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Alberta, who entered the game not having a lead for over 180 minutes, evened the game up in the second. On the Pandas first powerplay chance of the night, MacDougall was able to pot in the rebound after the initial Alex Poznikoff shot was stopped for her team-leading third of the season.
Both teams played a fairly even 40 minutes, with the game tied a one, and the shots favouring the Pandas 14-12.
UBC came out firing on all cylinders to start the third, absolutely dominating the possession, hemming the Pandas in their own zone for long periods of time. Despite being outplayed by a heavy margin, the Pandas earned their first lead of the game halfway through the third. Benning's shot from an odd angle ricocheted off a UBC defender in front, and past a helpless
Tory Micklash.
It wouldn't take the visitors long to even the game, however, as Boyd scored her first of the night one minute later. On yet another deflection,
Cassandra Vilgrain's shot from the top of the circle was tipped in by Boyd in front of the Alberta crease to tie the game 2-2, and send it into OT.
Neither team scored in the first OT period, setting up an incredibly quick three-on-three second period. Vilgrain grabbed the puck off the opening faceoff, raced in on a quick two-on-one, missing the net with a bullet shot, but Boyd quickly fired the rebound past a slow-to-react Owen.
"Our energy line of
Jenna Carpenter-Boesch,
Emily O'Neill and
Melissa Goodwin was our top line," said Thomas. "They're senior leadership and experience was great for us. Even though they didn't end up on the score sheet, they really hemmed Alberta and got momentum for us."
UBC now heads back to Point Grey for a huge match-up with Manitoba next weekend. The teams will battle in a re-match of last year's Canada West Championship. Puck drops Friday, October 28 at 7pm and Saturday, October 29 at 2pm. Both games will be played at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
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