VANCOUVER – Playing their first conference game in 41 days, the UBC Thunderbirds shook off the rust in a 3-1 victory over the University of Saskatchewan Huskies at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre Friday night.

The T-Birds overcame a strong performance from Huskies goaltender Colby Wilson who turned aside 29 of the 32 shots she faced. It was a special teams track meet with both teams combining for 26 penalty minutes in the contest. UBC (15-2-2) notched two power play goals on five attempts, and went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.

"The bright spot of the game was our special teams today, it got us through the game," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas.



It was a shaky start for the T-Birds as the Huskies (12-6-2) took advantage of an early turnover, capitalizing on a 2-on-1 for the game's first goal. Kendra Zuchotzki finished off a perfect pass from Kara Kondrat just over four minutes into the game.

"We played against a fast team, and that's our first game in 6 weeks, it's going to happen," added Thomas. "We allowed some of those mistakes, turnovers which is uncharacteristic of us."

Just before the end of the first Cassidy Rhodes solved a stifling Huskies penalty kill, scoring off a turnover for her team leading 11^th goal of the season.



A pair of second years teamed up to give UBC the 2-1 lead as Grace Elliott scored on the power play off an Annalise Wong rebound. Wong was buzzing in all situations and was rewarded with power play time, an opportunity she took full advantage of.

"What she does extremely well is her work ethic, she just doesn't stop working, and she leads by example."

Just over two minutes later, a Joelle Fiala pass intended for Grace Elliott found it's way to second year defender Kailee Peppler who sniped a top-shelf beauty from the point for her first career U SPORTS goal, and the final tally of the game.

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"Definitely brought back some memories playing them here at home again later in the season," added Thomas whose team won the 2022 Canada West final over the same Huskies last March. "I'm sure they are using that for motivation too and they're fired up to play us, we got to respect our opponent and know that they're going to come out hard."

UBC also hopes to create a gap atop the Canada West standings as the T-Birds are just one point ahead of the Alberta Pandas heading into Saturday's season series finale against Saskatchewan. Puck drop is set for 3:00 p.m. PT at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.