VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds secured a 3-2 win over the visiting University of Alberta Pandas in a double overtime thriller at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre Friday night. Second-year T-Bird Sophia Gaskell potted two almost-identical slapshot goals to help her team to victory while Joelle Fiala scored the game winner 12 seconds into the second overtime period.
The first of two regular season matchups between the Thunderbirds (10-1-2) and Pandas (9-3-1) went in favour of the T-Birds in a tight-checking battle between two of Canada West's elite teams. Alberta struck first as Pandas points leader Madison Willan (5G, 6A) forced a turnover on the forecheck and teammate Cassidy Maplethorpe finished off the play for her fifth of the season. Coming into the game, the Pandas were undefeated when leading after the first period.
"They're offensive, they have a lot of weapons but then they shut down in their zone really well," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "They block a lot of shots, they collapse and pressure you really hard. So for us we just needed to keep our composure."
It almost went from bad to worse for UBC in the second period as Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta's Allison Reich made a move to her forehand and narrowly missed a gaping cage to extend her team's lead. Instead, the period was scoreless until 1:05 remained when Gaskell ripped a low slapshot past a screened Halle Oswald, tying the game. Gaskell followed it up almost immediately with her second of the game as teammate
Chanreet Bassi took a hit to make a play, getting levelled as she sent the puck around the boards; it ended up on Gaskell's stick and she let go another booming slapshot to give her team a 2-1 lead with a buzzer-beater.
"That was massive," admired Thomas. "A couple big goals by her, she's just got a lethal shot so for her to be able to get those through and find the net there, and Ireland (Perrott) was bringing so much energy and being a great leader and screening on that first goal – that's exactly what we were preaching to do."
Alberta's top-ranked power play had gone 0-for-1 in the game, but were given another opportunity in the third period. Danica Namaka tied the game off of some pretty passing by the Pandas. But UBC stayed composed, killing another penalty off late in the third to force overtime.
Nothing was solved through five minutes of four-on-four and just 12 seconds into three-on-three Thunderbirds captain Rylind Mackinnon got the puck in the offensive zone, dropped a pass to
Chanreet Bassi who fed Fiala in the slot. Fiala made no mistake, sniping her third of the season, top-shelf past Oswald. Bassi's assist on the game-winner was her second of the game, giving her a team-leading total of 13 points (4G, 9A) on the year.
In addition to securing points in 11 straight games, the T-Birds also remain undefeated at home this season, winning all six contests at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. With the win, UBC leap-frogged Mount Royal, and currently sits first in the Canada West standings. However, they won't have much time to enjoy the win as they're back in action for the second game of the weekend series against Alberta at 3:00 p.m. PT Saturday.
"We just love playing at home. We love the rink, we love the good vibes here, got good memories for this group (in the) last year and a half. But it's always back to the process for us, doesn't matter what rink. Back at it and we know that they're a great team and they're going to be pushing back tomorrow so we have to be ready to respond."
Tickets are available online and the game will be streamed on
Canada West TV.
