VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds got key scoring, terrific penalty killing, and clutch goaltending from Kaeden Lane as they defeated the visiting Mount Royal Cougars 4-3 Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
The back-and-forth affair saw the teams tied 3-3 heading into the final period after a frenetic middle frame. But the only goal of the final 20 minutes was courtesy of Sasha Mutala who scored the game winner at the 3:36 mark as the T-Birds won for the fourth time in their last five games while snapping the Cougars' six-game win streak.
"It's sure fun to win those games because you're so invested, every puck battle is huge, the energy on the bench was great," said UBC head coach Sven Butenschon following what was an exceptionally entertaining contest. "You don't always just want to win the pretty games, you want to win the real tough, gritty games because that's what playoff hockey's going to look like. It felt like a playoff game out there tonight."
The T-Birds (8-5-2) dominated puck possession and offensive zone time in the first 20 minutes and they were rewarded when Sam Huo opened scoring halfway through the first for his sixth of the season.
But the momentum quickly swung in the Cougars' (10-3-2) favour in the final 59 seconds. Conference leading scorer Riley Sawchuk evened the game 1-1 on a beautiful passing play from Nolan Yaremko just inside the final minute.
A T-Bird penalty just seconds later saw MRU's power play extend into the second period and with just one second remaining on the advantage, the Cougars took their first – and as it turns out, their only – lead of the game when Sawchuk returned the favour, setting up Yaremko for his ninth.
A good response from the T-Birds saw the game tied up just 1:25 later when Liam Kindree rifled a one-timer from the slot, making good on a nice pass from Mutala, his third goal of the season.
The middle frame frenzy continued with the two teams trading goals less than two-and-a-half minutes apart with Jordan Sandhu's second on a goalmouth scramble and MRU tying things up 3-3 with Koby Morrisseau's third off a T-Bird turnover.
UBC's penalty kill was put to one of their biggest tests of the year late in the second when Ethan McIndoe was given a boarding major. But thanks in large part to excellence from Lane in net and shot blocks from a number of T-Birds – most notably Scott Atkinson and Jonny Lambos – UBC survived the onslaught intact.
Riding that momentum, Mutala put away the eventual game winner less than a minute after returning to even-strength. Huo carried the puck down the right side of the neutral zone, fed the puck to Mutala who skated into the Cougars zone, went wide past a defenceman, then drove towards the net and went bar-down past Riley Sims for his fifth and team-leading 21st point of the season.
"You don't win that game unless your PK is dialled because we took a few stupid penalties," Butenschon explained. "You don't want to give that team too many chances on the power play with that firepower up front. So the guys stood tall back there, blocked shots, knew their assignments and your best penalty killer's got to be your goalie so he was rock solid back there."
Lane finished the game with 23 saves in what was one of his best performances to date as a T-Bird, including a key penalty shot save on Yaremko with less than five minutes remaining in the third.
"I thought he did a great job anticipating and reading the play to allow him to make the save instead of reacting. He was reading the play and anticipating really well. Very calm back there and moved the puck, helped our D on breakouts, it was nice to see."
Handing MRU just their third regulation loss of the season, the T-Birds improve to 4-2-2 on home ice this season and now have the opportunity to both earn the weekend sweep and, more importantly, claim the season series over the Cougars as the two teams won't face each other again this regular season beyond Saturday's rematch.
Puck drop for the 'Birds' final home game of 2022 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre is set for 3:00 p.m. PT. Tickets are available now and the game will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
