VANCOUVER – On a night where the UBC Thunderbirds honoured last year's Canada West championship team by raising their 2023 banner to the rafters of the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, the T-Birds quickly shifted to business-mode in a 6-1 rout of the visiting Regina Cougars.
Friday night's home opener saw the T-Birds stake out a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes only to explode for four more in the final 20 in what was a big bounce back performance after last Saturday's crushing overtime loss in Edmonton.
"In games like that, it's only a two goal game, that third goal was important but just how we played was more important," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas whose team dominated the third. "We executed a lot better, we kind of settled down and relaxed and made some really nice plays to score those goals in the third period."
Mia Bierd and Madisyn Wiebe scored just 55 seconds apart early in the final frame to put the 'Birds up by four, but the visitors weren't about to go quietly.
Regina had a golden opportunity midway through the period with a lengthy 5-on-3 power play and they were able to capitalize, finally breaking onto the scoreboard and spoiling Elise Hugens' shutout bid. At the 9:05 mark, Jenna Merk passed off from the slot to Makena Kushniruk whose low backhander just sneaked under the UBC netminder.
The T-Birds were able to restore their four goal lead, however, when
Mackenzie Kordic sniped a wrister from the slot, blocker side past Regina goaltender Natalie Williamson at the 13:23 mark, her second of the night in what was a three-point game for the fourth-year forward.
"She has such a good release and kind of dusts off a check and gets into a nice goal scoring area and rips it," said Thomas of Kordic's elite scoring touch.
Kailee Peppler added the icing on the cake with her first of the season, sneaking a sharp angle shot past Williamson with two minutes remaining.
Hugens made 12 saves for her second win of the season with UBC outshooting the Cougars by a 37-13 margin.
"It was exciting and we want to celebrate winning the home opener and all that but this team is really going to come at us tomorrow so we have to be ready to play back-to-back games and we haven't really done that yet this year," Thomas added. "We're really just focussing on our performance."
That rematch is set for 3:00 p.m. Saturday at Father Bauer Arena with Regina looking to pick up their first win of the young season. Tickets are available online and the game will also be streamed live on Canada West TV.
