CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI – The UBC Thunderbirds have advanced to the U SPORTS consolation final with a 4-0 win over the McGill Martlets Saturday morning at the Bell Aliant Centre.
The T-Birds quickly got out to a 2-0 first period lead, adding two more in the third while
Elise Hugens made 25 saves for her third shutout this postseason.
"It was really nice to see, especially the first and third periods, us get back to playing our game," said UBC Head Coach
Graham Thomas on his team's resilience following Thursday's quarter-final overtime heartbreaker. "Our motivation was to play for our seniors, to show we can play our game. That's a really good hockey team. For us, we want to show what we can do and earn that third game and represent UBC as best we can."
The T-Birds came storming out of the gate and opened scoring 6:51 into the first when
Shay-Lee McConnell scored on the power play. As she was falling to the ice, the veteran forward still managed to get a shot away from the left faceoff circle, getting the puck past Martlets netminder Tricia Deguire.
Six minutes later UBC doubled their lead when
Rylind MacKinnon pounced on a rebound, hammering the puck into the back of the net for her first of the post-season.
McGill came out of the intermission a determined group looking to get on the board, outshooting the T-Birds 11-6 in the frame. Despite four power play opportunities in the period, the Martlets couldn't get anything past Hugens who looked dialled in from the opening faceoff.
While on the tail end of McGill's sixth power play of the contest early in the third period, UBC sprung themselves on a two-on-one rush.
Annalise Wong's shot was stopped but the rebound bounced off
Ashley McFadden and in, giving UBC a commanding 3-0 lead in a crushing blow to the Martlets.
Mia Bierd added some more insurance with nine minutes remaining on a snipe from the slot with traffic in front.
The T-Birds limited McGill to just four shots in the final period. While she went stretches of not being terribly busy, Hugens was solid when counted upon.
"It's incredible," Thomas described Hugens' play of late in which she has allowed just one even strength goal in her last four games. "Whenever we got a little scrambly and a little off and with all those power plays in the second, she was just a wall for us. She's just having fun, she doesn't get worried and nervous, she just goes and has fun and competes hard."
Despite having their chance of a national title dashed with Thursday's loss to Nipissing, the T-Birds weren't about to go home sulking as they were full value for Saturday's win.
UBC will now face the host UPEI Panthers after they defeated the Brock Badgers 2-0 in Saturday's other consolation semifinal. Puck drop for the consolation final is set for 11:00 a.m. AT/7:00 a.m. PT Sunday at the Bell Aliant Centre. The game will be streamed live on
USPORTS.ca.
