VANCOUVER – The Ryerson Rams forced the two-game split as the UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team fell 6-3 on Saturday afternoon at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. The Rams, seeking redemption after a 4-1 loss to UBC the night prior, were able to score six despite only outshooting the 'Birds 31-28.  
 
The loss marks the lone defeat of UBC's first five pre-season games, which head coach Sven Butenschon says is sometimes necessary to put things into perspective. 
 
"Hockey is a game of mistakes and we made way too many. Today…we learned how not to play. If we try and play into other team's hands it's not going to work," noted Butenschon. 
 
Butenschon acknowledged that the Rams are "a highly skilled team, and [if] you give them a chance they're going to make you pay."


 
T-Birds forward Nick Buonassisi, who led his team with a pair of goals, echoed his coach's views of how the game went.
 
"It's always nice to put a couple in the net, but we have to be a lot better than we were tonight. We were turning too many pucks over. It cost us, especially in the first period," he said. 
 
While the eight penalties handed out in the first frame mimicked Friday night's scrappy contest, the score certainly didn't. Ryerson managed to net three goals in the opening 20, with Landon Schiller, Eric DeLaurentis and Devon Paliani logging their first goals of the season. Schiller also scored the Rams' fourth goal with a top-corner snipe during a breakaway midway through the second.  
 
UBC's lone first period goal came when Luke Lockhart fed the puck to Buonassisi, who rifled it in from the slot during a UBC 5-on-3 at 10:34.
 
After Ryerson netted its fifth goal at 18:32 in the second, UBC's Michael Stenerson and Devan Fafard set up Joe Carvalho, who tucked the puck past Rams goaltender Taylor Dupuis. 
 
UBC once again responded to a Rams goal early in the third, with Buonassisi beating Taylor five hole. The efforts were not enough to prevent the Rams from maintaining a commanding lead throughout the game. 
 
Regardless of the score, Buonassisi appreciated the rare opportunity to face-off against an eastern Canadian team, stating "It's always cool to play a team you never get to see [and] to get a taste of what the other leagues are like."
 
UBC will play its final pre-season game, against Trinity Western, on Saturday, October 1 at Father Bauer Arena.