VANCOUVER – For the second straight season, the UBC Thunderbirds are headed to the Canada West Final with a 2-1 win over the Mount Royal Cougars in game three of the conference semifinal series.
Trailing 1-0 after the first, the T-Birds got a power play goal from Scott Atkinson in the second and the eventual series winner from Matt Revel in the third as UBC will now move on to face the Alberta Golden Bears for the Canada West title series starting Friday, March 18 in Edmonton while also clinching a berth at the upcoming University Cup U SPORTS National Championship.
"It feels obviously pretty darn good but it also feels kind of right after the way it ended for us in Halifax there," said UBC Head Coach Sven Butenschon, referencing the pandemic forced abrupt end to competition in 2020. "Our guys just had a long couple years so it feels kind of fitting."
Just like the previous two games of the series, the Cougars came out with a strong first period effort, dominating puck possession. That effort was rewarded with the game opening goal at the 13:26 mark when Levi Kleiboer wristed a hard shot past Rylan Toth for his first of the playoffs.
But that was the only puck to get past Toth all night as the Canada West First Team All-Star stopped 29 saves in total for his third series win as a Thunderbird.
Keeping his team in the game with 13 first period saves, Toth got some run support when Atkinson finished a deft in-tight shot on the man advantage 12:53 into the second. Getting a feed from Conner McDonald from the right-wing boards, Atkinson pivoted toward the net while moving the puck to his forehand before snapping it past Riley Morris to tie the game.
From there on, the T-Birds had the clear edge in play as they once again used their depth to wear down the Cougars.
"It looked like they were hanging on from the middle of the second period on," added Butenschon. "We just kept to it, we didn't need to change anything and we knew eventually a bounce was going to go our way or the dam was going to break."
But it wasn't until the mid point of the third when the 'Birds got the go-ahead marker, courtesy of Revel's fourth of the series. The veteran forward finished on a two-on-one pass from Atkinson, getting it past Morris glove side.
Still trailing with just over two minutes remaining and on the penalty kill, the Cougars put Morris on the bench for the extra attacker, but even after getting back to even strength, MRU just couldn't manage to set up in the UBC zone. That is until the dying seconds when the puck came perilously close to finding the inside of Toth's net.
"The D zone coverage, the back checking hard, coming back to the house, protecting the middle of the ice, keeping them to the outside," Butenschon listed the solid defensive efforts of his team throughout game three and the entire series. "Even the first period, we weren't very good, but they only had a couple five-on-five scoring chances. Five-on-five we were outstanding the entire series just limiting chances against."
While the loss ends Mount Royal's season, the T-Birds continue on to face Alberta in an attempt to claim UBC's first conference banner in over 50 years.
The best-of-three conference final begins Friday, March 18 at Edmonton's Clare Drake Arena while University Cup gets underway Thursday, March 31 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
