SASKATOON – The UBC Thunderbirds are off to the Canada West semifinals thanks to Hannah Clayton-Carroll's double overtime winner, the only goal of the game, as the 'Birds sweep the Saskatchewan Huskies in two straight games at Merlis Belsher Place.

Despite entering the playoffs as the lowest seed finishing the regular season 19 points behind the Huskies, the T-Birds advance to the second round of the playoffs for the eighth straight year.

Clayton-Carroll's goal came 83:52 into the marathon game, assisted by Mathea Fischer for her fourth point of the playoffs.

?? WHKY | T-Birds win!! Hannah Clayton-Carroll scores at 13:52 of double overtime as @UBCWHKY sweeps @HuskieAthletics to advance to the @CanadaWest semifinals! pic.twitter.com/ThtGbsxz3Y

— UBC Thunderbirds / @UBCTBirds (@ubctbirds) February 16, 2020

"There were a lot of waves when they were putting a lot of pressure on us, and we just had to keep fighting through that," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas. "I'm really proud of the group. We kept the energy up and stayed mentally tough."

Tory Micklash was tremendous between the pipes once again for UBC as the netminder stopped all 38 shots she faced to record the victory.

"(She) was the difference," Thomas said. "She stood on her head and shut them down when we needed her to."



At the opposite end of the ice Jessica Vance was nearly perfect for the Huskies as the fourth-year netminder did all she could to give her team a chance to push the series to a third game. Vance stopped 28 of 29 shots on the night.

With the win, the Thunderbirds advance to the conference semifinals where they will head back on the road to Edmonton for a best-of-three series against the Alberta Pandas.

"They'll be ready," said Thomas of his team. "We have to keep playing with that compete and keep building on our game."

The semifinal series against the Pandas gets underway Friday, February 21^st at Clare Drake Arena as the T-Birds will look to advance to their first Canada West final in four years.