LETHBRIDGE, AB – Despite surrendering a four goal lead, captain Tim Campbell scored in the first overtime to give the Lethbridge Pronghorn men's hockey team a weekend sweep of the UBC Thunderbirds with a wild 8-7 win in overtime.
Campbell streaked down the right side of the Thunderbirds zone and with the puck on edge, his slap shot picked the far low corner for his second overtime winner of the season.
The sweep puts the Pronghorns four points ahead of the Thunderbirds for the final playoff spot with four games to play, but the one point the T-Birds picked up with the overtime loss could come back to haunt the Pronghorns.
With the win the Pronghorns improve to 10-11-3, while the Thunderbirds move to 8-13-2.
"We shot ourselves in the foot after getting a good start. We took penalties and couldn't kill them off," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon. "We regrouped and the last two periods we dominated."
Down 7-5, the Thunderbirds scored twice on the power play in the final two minutes to force the extra frame.
Jerret Smith's one-timer on a two-man advantage with 1:12 to play brought to visitors within one and
Anthony Bardaro capitalized on a goal mouth scramble with only 13-seconds to play to force overtime. Both were scored with Thunderbird goaltender
Derek Dunn on the bench for the extra attacker.
Pronghorn goaltender Garret Hughson made 37 saves to earn his second consecutive win, while his counterpart, Dunn made 28 saves.
'Horns freshman defender Clint Filbrandt had a big game offensively with a goal and three assists. For the Thunderbirds, the Trio of
Manraj Hayer,
Austin Vetterl and Bardaro all had four point games as well.
Less than a minute into the game, the T-Birds would get on the board with
Austin Vetterl tipping home a point shot, but from there it was all Pronghorns in the opening period.
Mitch Maxwell got the Pronghorns barrage started, stealing the puck deep in the Thunderbirds end and beating UBC keeper
Derek Dunn high glove to knot the game at one. Then the Pronghorns power play went to work scoring three straight goals.
Justin Valentino picked up his 15
th of the season, before Ryan Chynoweth picked up his second in as many games with the Pronghorns on a two man advantage.
Taking a feed from Campbell, Russ Maxwell rounded out the first period scoring, beating Dunn glove side. Pronghorns outshot the Thunderbirds 21-7.
After such a dominate opening period by the Pronghorns, the roles were reversed in the second with the Thunderbirds outshooting the Pronghorns 14-4 and scoring three times, but the Pronghorns were also able to score twice on only four shots.
"We had breakaways and 2-on-1's and we couldn't score then (the Pronghorns) go down in a similar situation and are able to get goals," added Butenschon.
Manraj Hayer cut the lead to 4-2, seven minutes into the period on a breakaway, but Clint Filbrandt answered back for the Pronghorns on a breakaway of his own. Coming out of the penalty box, Valentino hit Filbrandt in stride and he beat Dunn five-hole.
On the Pronghorns very next shot, Cory Millette beat Dunn blocker side to put the Pronghorns up 6-2 and just when it looked as if the Pronghorns would run away with it, UBC answered back with two goals in 21-seconds.
With the man advantage, Hayer redirected a puck out of midair for his second of the afternoon and
Tanner Faith concluded the second consecutive five goal period, with his seeing-eye shot beating a screened Garret Hughson from the point.
The Pronghorns killed off a 1:51 power play to start the third but after a second Pronghorn penalty expired, the Thunderbirds closed the gap to one. Vetterl took a feed in the slot and beat Hughson glove side.
It had looked like Sam McKechnie's fifth of the season with seven minutes to play would give the Pronghorns the breathing room they needed to complete the sweep, but the Thunderbirds had other ideas.
Heading into the home stretch of the season, the Pronghorns and Thunderbirds will continue to battle for the final playoff spot but the T-Birds have the easier of the two schedules. The Pronghorns head out on the road next weekend to visit the also tough Alberta Golden Bears before closing out the season at home versus the conference leading Saskatchewan Huskies.
"The schedule is in our favour, Lethbridge has Saskatchewan and Alberta. We need to win our home games and take it to the last week of the season," said Butenschon. "Our guys know what it takes to win and are trying hard but we're just lacking the crispness and the good team game that we had last weekend."
The Thunderbirds will return home to host the basement dwelling Regina Cougars and close the season on the road at seventh ranked Mount Royal Cougars.
