REGINA, Sask. – The UBC Thunderbirds' historic season continued on Saturday night, as they became the first UBC hockey team in the school's 101-year history to win a regular season league title. The 'Birds scored a 3-1 victory over the Regina Cougars to clinch the top spot in Canada West for 2016-17.
"We recognize this is the regular season, but as far as a regular season goal goes this is history for us and something that's never been accomplished before while raising the bar even higher," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "It's a special group we have here led by our senior class. They have a lot of heart, determination, and commitment and have been instrumental in setting this culture and defending it at whatever cost."
Cassandra Vilgrain and
Stephanie Schaupmeyer each scored for the second-straight night, and
Haneet Parhar added an empty-netter with just a second on the clock to seal the win for UBC.
Emma Waldenberger notched her second goal of the weekend for the Cougars (10-12-3-1).
Vilgrain opened the scoring on the powerplay at the 3:07 mark of the first period with her third of the weekend. A point shot from
Alexa Ranahan was stopped by Jane Kish, but Vilgrain showed off her quick hands to knock home the rebound before the puck bounced away from the net.
The Cougars answered just 3:43 into the second period, on a beauty from Waldenberger. The third-year forward took a pass from Kaitlyn Crowe and made her way up the left wing. A slick move to the inside got Waldenberger some space and she wired a wrist shot to the top corner past
Tory Micklash.
It was the UBC captain who scored the decisive goal as the Thunderbirds went to the powerplay with just over five minutes left. The T-Birds set up their powerplay and Vilgrain worked the puck back to Ranahan. The defenceman sent a low shot right to the front of the net where Schaupmeyer was waiting and deflected it off the post and in past Kish.
"They came at us hard in the second and we had to be really strong in the third," added Thomas. "We committed to that and in the third period we found a way again. Our special teams again were huge. It's nice to see our power play clicking."
The Cougars couldn't gain any traction in the remaining five minutes, as UBC kept the Cougars hemmed in their own end. Regina finally got some zone control in the final minute but a Krista Metz point shot was blocked and UBC went the other way where Parhar iced the game.
Kish made 23 saves in the loss and Micklash stopped 20 shots at the other end of the rink.
UBC will close its season at home against Mount Royal.
