VANCOUVER - Sierra Laplante, Karine Sandilands and Annalise Wong all lit the lamp for the UBC Thunderbirds who got past the Calgary Dinos 3-1 on Friday night to open their weekend series at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
With the win the T-Birds have secured at least a point in seven straight games while improving to 7-1-0 on the Canada West campaign. The Dinos fell to 3-6-0 on the season and have goaltender Gabriella Durante to thank for keeping the game within reach as she was superb in the visiting net, making several highlight reel stops amongst her 28 saves on the night.
UBC Defender, LaPlante opened the scoring just under 10 minutes into a tight-checking first period. LaPlante took a pass from Bierd in the neutral zone, and stepped into a wrister, finding twine on a top-shelf effort for her second goal of the season.
"That's the strength of our team," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "The scorings coming from everywhere so it's hard to defend, we got different players stepping up every night."
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The Dinos answered in the second period with Josie McLeod's first U SPORTS goal tying the game up. However, it was the T-Birds controlling much of the pace with all four lines feeding off the energy of the home crowd. Second-year T-Bird Karine Sandilands potted her first of the season taking the puck off the boards and going high glove after a slick move to her forehand to put UBC up 2-1.
Calgary refused to go quietly as the Dinos pushed for the tying goal in the third period. However, UBC's top-guns of
Ireland Perrott,
Mackenzie Kordic, and Grace Elliott were buzzing to get the insurance marker. A tipped point shot from Sophia Gaskell looked to solve Durante, but the Dinos goalie made an incredible play to sweep the puck off the goalline, keeping her team in the game.
"[Durante] battles hard, you've got to get her moving, to score on her you got to really make a good play," added Thomas. "I'd like to see that one again cause I for sure thought that was going in!"
After weathering a Dinos push, second-year forward Annalise Wong caused havoc on the forecheck and was promptly rewarded. Bierd followed up the forecheck recording her second assist on a pass to Wong who buried her first career U SPORTS goal.
"It's amazing that kid does everything," commented Thomas. "She fore-checks, she backchecks she creates turnovers, she's all over she just doesn't stop. So, for her to get rewarded, and score that big goal is massive. Sandliands too, gets the monkey off her back and scores a beautiful goal."
UBC has now won four straight games, but it's 'on to the next one' as they face the University of Calgary Dinos again, in less than 24 hours. Puck drop is at 3:00 p.m. PT. on Saturday afternoon, at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, it is also available to stream on Canada West TV.
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