EDMONTON – A night after completing a gutsy third period comeback, the undermanned T-Birds suffered a 4-1 loss to the Alberta Golden Bears Saturday night, settling for the weekend split at Clare Drake Arena.
The Bears (5-3-0) outshot the T-Birds (5-3-0) 51-10, scoring four unanswered goals and could have scored plenty more if not for some outstanding play from UBC goaltender Patrick Dea who made 47 saves, many of them five-alarm stops.
"The guys gave it everything they had, it was a real emotional win yesterday," said UBC head coach Sven Butenschon. "We came out today and played a team that was very motivated and came out desperate. We played good enough in the first and defended really well but we ran into a couple more injury problems. Playing four defencemen in the second half of the game, it was just a real strong effort by everyone but we just kind of ran out of gas."
Brandon Magee scored a pair, with Graeme Craig and Jason Fram also finding the net for Alberta. The loss drops the Thunderbirds to 5-3 and in a tie with Alberta in the standings.
Dea wasn't given much help from his offence, however, as they mustered just one power play goal from Tyler Sandhu in the first, and only eight total shots at five-on-five.
Dea was strong in the opening period for UBC, stopping all 13 shots he faced against a hungry Golden Bears side. In similar fashion to the night before, UBC would strike first with the Sandhu marker. Taking a feed from Jerret Smith, Sandhu blew a bullet over a screened Zach Sawchenko.
That would stand as the only offence UBC generated, as Alberta dominated possession and offensive zone time from then on. Magee tied the game early in the second on the power play, bouncing a pass in off a UBC defender and past Dea.
Craig gave Alberta their first lead midway through the second, taking a fantastic backhand pass from Steven Owre, ripping a shortside shot over the shoulder of the freshman UBC keeper.
Owning a 34-8 shot advantage after two, the Bears continued to pour on the shots in the third. Dea was forced to make a handful of big saves in the final frame, keeping his team down by just one.
Fram added a bit of insurance on the power play, snapping in a rebound past a sliding Dea. Magee sealed the convincing win for the Bears later in the period, as Alberta quickly pounced on a UBC turnover, scoring on an abbreviated three-on-one.
"This group showed me a lot," added Butenschon. "We were blocking shots at the end of a 4-1 game, everyone was pulling the rope together. When we're healthy I think we're going to be a pretty determined, dangerous group."
Both teams will head into their conference bye weeks, before returning to Canada West action on November 9th when the 'Birds will host the Saskatchewan Huskies for the first half of a weekend doubleheader.
