VANCOUVER – Despite outshooting and out chancing the Huskies while also winning the special teams battle, the UBC Thunderbirds dropped a 4-3 decision to Saskatchewan Saturday afternoon at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, suffering a weekend sweep.
Huskies forward Jared Dmytriw scored twice, including the game winner on the power play in the third period, while Roddy Ross earned his fourth win of the season making 34 saves.
"It's extremely frustrating," lamented UBC Head Coach Sven Butenschon. "I've coached in this league for awhile now and Saskatchewan has always been a top team and a top contender and they have a great team again this year. But, I feel for six periods we took it to them and out played them in all six periods. We put up close to 90 shots, directed so many pucks towards their net, spent so much time in the offensive zone, but we just couldn't find a way to get an early one or the power play to come through at an important time or get a save when you need it. Just a few of the intangibles were missing."
The 'Birds (3-2-1) did everything but score in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Huskies (5-1) by a 17-5 margin. But it was the visitors who opened scoring for the second straight game when captain Connor Hobbs potted his second of the season on a slap shot from the point, through traffic and past Kaeden Lane.
Cael Zimmerman added his second of the weekend four minutes later to double the Huskies lead on a wrister from the high slot.
The T-Birds finally got on the board when Cyle McNabb notched a buzzer beater for his fifth of the season. The second year forward intercepted a cross seam Huskies pass with just seconds on the clock while shorthanded. He turned on the jets down the right wing into the Saskatchewan zone and with no more than two tenths of a second remaining, released a wicked wrister past Ross to give UBC a much needed boost.
"When you score a late goal like that in a period you should come out with tons of momentum and usually there are the hockey gods or some karma involved where you come out guns ablazing, and again we just couldn't do it," added Butenschon. "You need to keep positive, unfortunately this league is so tight and you only play 28 games so the results are so important. It's going to be a real tough pill to swallow, watching other teams move up in the standings and we're just sitting there, but as long as we learn from it."
That momentum seemed to carry over in the final period as Sam Huo scored his first as a Thunderbirds just 87 seconds in, burying a Sasha Mutala rebound to even the score 2-2.
Dmytriw's first of two on the afternoon restored Saskatchewan's lead when he scored on the power play at the 8:33 mark.
Yet once again, the 'Birds were able to respond getting a power play goal of their own four minutes later thanks to Liam Kindree's first of the season. Mutala earned his second assist of the game by feeding the puck to Kindree high in the slot and the former Kelowna Rocket tied the game at threes.
Elation quickly turned, however, for the T-Birds as the Dmytriw struck again on a wraparound just 28 seconds later for what stood up as the game winner.
Both teams finished 1/3 on the power play with UBC outshooting the Huskies 37-22.
Now with five wins in six games to start the season, the Huskies return home to host Alberta for a weekend double dip in Saskatoon.
The T-Birds will have to wait awhile before they get a shot at redemption as they have a bye week before the MacEwan Griffins pay a visit to Vancouver October 28 and 29.
