EDMONTON –
Jerret Smith scored 8:28 into overtime to lead the UBC Thunderbirds to a 3-2 game one win over the top-seeded Alberta Golden Bears in their Canada West semifinal Friday night at Clare Drake Arena.
After
Colton Kehler tied the game at two late in the second period, the Bears outshot UBC 15-2 in the third but an exceptional performance by T-Birds goaltender
Rylan Toth, who finished the night with 51 saves, forced overtime.
Once again, the Bears dominated on offence with the first nine shots of overtime, but Smith's blast from the point stunned the home crowd as UBC is now just one win away from advancing to the conference final.
The Golden Bears outshot UBC 53-17 with Toth recording a career-high in saves, which included stops on all 24 shots through the third period and overtime.
"They are a very good team. I think last weekend gave us some confidence for tonight," said Toth. "Intensity wise, the playoffs is something else, and our guys were ready to go tonight. It's a lot of fun playing in this rink with the crowd getting on you a bit. And I think that gave our guys a little something extra."
"He was incredible," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon of his goaltender's first star performance. "He was in the zone, he's been in a zone for awhile. His angles are good, he's sharp, he anticipates the play really well. He's just always in a really good challenge position."
Friday night's loss was also a rarity for Alberta as it marked their first home playoff defeat since Game two of the 2013 Canada West Final, a 5-4 OT loss to Saskatchewan.
Matt Revel and
Colton Kehler also scored for UBC, who have now won two-straight playoff games in overtime, after a game three win over Mount Royal last weekend in the quarter-final.
Dalton Hamaliuk and Cole Sanford each scored for the Bears in the second period, while Burke stopped 14 of the 17 shots he faced.
The visitors opened scoring early in the second as Revel cleaned up a rebound kicked out by Burke on a shot by
Carter Popoff for his second of the playoffs.
Hamaliuk tied the scoring nine minutes later, tapping in a loose puck that snuck through Toth in the UBC crease.
Sanford gave Alberta their first lead of the game three minutes later, beating Toth with a rocket from the slot on the power play.
But the Bears couldn't hang on to their lead heading into the break as Kehler tied the game at 2-2 with a seeing-eye shot through Burke's five-hole with just 18 seconds left in the second with his team-leading third tally of the post-season.
The Golden Bears are now in jeopardy of missing the Canada West final for the first time in eight years but the T-Birds know their job is far from done.
"Hopefully we learned last week that one game doesn't mean anything," added Butenschon. "We got a lot of work to do. We talked about going on a business trip, well, we got a lot of business ahead of us. We're not too high right now, we'll see if we can make any adjustments to spend a little more time in the offensive zone and just come up with a winning game plan."
Puck drop for game two of the semifinal is set for 6:00 p.m. PT Saturday at Clare Drake Arena.
