LETHBRIDGE — Jake Kryski completed his first career hat trick as part of a five point game as the UBC Thunderbirds hammered the Lethbridge Pronghorns 6-1 Friday night at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
 
The host Pronghorns scored the game's opening goal late in the first period only to have the T-Birds score six unanswered for a big two points to get back into a tie with the Regina Cougars for the sixth and final Canada West playoff berth with just three games remaining in the regular season.
 
Kryski's big night earned the rookie Thunderbird first star honours while Austin Glover had a goal and two assists.
 
UBC goaltender Rylan Toth turned aside all but one of the 27 shots he faced in the crucial win while counterpart Jack Burgart allowed five goals on the 33 shots he faced.


 
"I think how we responded after a very sub-par first period, I think the guys were really challenging each other to be better and they went out there in the second and turned on the jets and the ice was slanted in Lethbridge's zone," said UBC head coach Sven Butenschon. "We created a tone of scoring chances with our speed, we threw a ton of pucks on the net, we capitalized on opportunities and we executed when we had to."
 
Lethbridge (5-17-3) opened scoring in the late stages of the first period when Luke Coleman braced his man at the corner boards which allowed Brooks Maxwell to take the puck to the blue line and drop it off for Taylor Fisher, whose long shot found its way past Toth.
 
The Thunderbirds (7-13-5) appeared to change their strategy early in the second, adopting more offensively focused tendencies, and it showed success early in the form of the tying goal. On a partial three-on-two, Kryski got the puck over to Tyler Sandhu whose shot missed wide but was recovered by Glover who wrapped it around the net and past a scrambling Burgart to tie the game.


 
Midway through the frame on the power play, Carter Popoff kick-started a tic-tac-toe play from the high slot to Jarret Tyszka at the half-boards. The puck was rebounded through the slot to Kryski at the far point, and his shot found twine above the glove of Burgart to take the lead for what stood up as the game winner.
 
The third period was where it all went wrong for the home side, allowing four goals, including an empty netter.
 
It all started with a Jonathan Smart breakout pass out to Glover, who dished it to a streaking Kryski before finding the back of the Lethbridge net.
 
Off of a Torrin White turnover in the defensive zone that slid free thanks to Austin Vetterl, an unmarked Popoff was in prime scoring position and did not miss, firing it past the skate of an out-of-position Burgart.
 
The empty net goal came thanks to a Thunderbirds faceoff win by Glover, and some careful stick work by Sandhu as the puck found the speedy Kryski who skated through the neutral zone and easily shot the puck into the untended net.


 
Adding salt to the wound was Colton Kehler, who received the puck from Quentin Greenwood's hard exit out of the UBC end, finding room past Burgart's glove for his fourth of the season and the T-Birds' fourth goal of the period.
The loss officially eliminates the Pronghorns from post-season contention as they can finish no higher than seventh.
 
UBC, meanwhile, is currently on the wrong side of a tie-breaker with Regina for sixth, but a T-Birds win Saturday and a Cougars loss to Alberta would put UBC back in the playoff picture heading into the final weekend of the season.
 
"We'll put that game behind us immediately because we got a lot of work to do still," insisted Butenschon. "We'll take a look at video here and make some changes to our lineup tomorrow and I think that'll give us a good shot in the arm."
 
Puck drop for the final road game of the regular season for the 'Birds is 12:00 p.m. PT Saturday at Nicholas Sheran Arena.