VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds wrapped up their hosting duties at the women's hockey East vs. West Showcase with a commanding 6-0 win over the NAIT Ooks at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Sunday. Veteran Kathleen Cahoon's hat-trick and a shutout performance from rookie goaltender Danielle Wierenga helped propel the 'Birds to a perfect 3-0 finish in the pre-season tourney. 

The Thunderbirds outscored their opponents 13-2 over the Showcase weekend, setting a hopeful precedent heading into the CIS regular season. 

UBC head coach Graham Thomas praised his team's weekend performance, and cited Sunday's game as an example of their potential as a group. 

"We got to work on a lot of good things. They were all challenging games in their own right. It's nice to see us step up and play a good team game" said Thomas.
 

#UBC women's hockey currently leading @naitooks 2-0 at @ubctbirdarena. #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/2BkDDm9raf

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) September 18, 2016

"[NAIT] is a gritty team and they pushed hard. But we came out flying, and it was nice to see us keep our energy for the full 60-minutes. "

Cahoon was impressed with how her squad performed in all three of their weekend matches, where she recorded three goals and one assist. 

"The team played really well. [NAIT] are a really psychical team and we kept them at our pace. It was exciting to see all the East teams and how they play, and it's a good preview into the year," noted Cahoon. 

UBC got to work early, netting a pair of goals in the opening five minutes of the game. Jaedon Cooke fed the puck to Jenna Carpenter-Boesch, who potted her second of tournament. Cahoon logged her first goal of the season less than two minutes later. 



Ample time on the power play and a second period push failed to provide enough space for the Ooks to find many meaningful scoring chances. Despite the final score, NAIT goaltender Tara Bouvette still managed a solid 26-save performance. 

After fighting through back-to-back second period penalty kills, UBC recorded their third goal thanks to a brilliant play by Kelly Murray. Taking a feed from Mairead Bast, Murray blasted up the wing, split a pair of Ooks defenders and tucked the puck in five-hole at 12:25. Soon after, Cahoon lit the lamp for the second time, putting her team up 4-0 heading into the third. 
 

Final Score UBC 4 - Western 1 ???? Goals @mochamissile x2 @parrss @loganboyd11 1st CIS Win to #ToriMicklash and shot block of the night goes to @c_tardif on a handful of kills ????

A photo posted by UBC Women's Hockey (@ubcwhky) on Sep 17, 2016 at 10:48pm PDT

UBC's Jaden Cook shovelled the puck past Bouvette just over a minute into the third, and artful passing between Katie Finn, Haneet Parhar and Cahoon led to the hat-trick goal and the 6-0 victory. 

Wierenga attributed her shut-out performance to a team-wide effort.

"The team played really well in front of me. It makes my job easy. I think we've come out and made a name for ourselves. This is a winning team."

Next up, UBC will host Team B.C. on Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24 at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.