VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds head into the Canada West playoffs on a 12-game win streak after a convincing 4-1 victory over the Regina Cougars Saturday afternoon at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
After holding a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes, the 'Birds (20-6-2) dominated the second period to open up a 4-0 gap while goaltender
Cole Schwebius made 25 saves to earn his seventh win of the season, securing third place in the Canada West and a home playoff series next week against the same Cougars squad.
"I thought our defencemen moving the puck into our forwards' hands was maybe the cleanest we've been able to do that this year," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon following a much crisper game all around compared to Friday night. "Looking at our time on ice last night we had forwards playing 13, 14, 15 minutes so there should be no excuse, they shouldn't be tired, they should have tons of jam for the next day, even if it is an afternoon game. All year I've rolled four lines, that's probably what I'll do in playoffs and I think that's been a huge part of our success."
Midway through the opening period the T-Birds opened scoring in the most appropriate fashion as
Jordan Sandhu – honoured as UBC's only graduating senior just prior to puck drop – slammed home a rebound for his fifth of the season. Captain
Chris Douglas passed the puck from behind the net back to
Jonny Lambos at the point whose shot was fought off by Adam Evanoff, leaving the puck loose at the side of the crease.
Sam Huo extended his point streak to six games with a beautiful offensive zone rush that culminated in his 13
th goal of the season. The rookie T-Bird picked up a bank pass from
Sasha Mutala in the neutral zone and broke in on the right wing, cut to the middle and outwaited Evanoff with his backhand.
Less than four minutes later,
Chris Douglas gave the 'Birds a 3-0 lead converting on an odd-man rush. Sandhu made a drop pass to the slot to Douglas who fired home his seventh.
Late in the second the 'Birds found themselves on a full two minute 5-on-3 power play but it took all of ten seconds for
Jake Lee to score his 14
th of the season, tying him with
Cyle McNabb as the regular season goal scoring leader. The rookie phenom perfectly picked the near-side top corner to firmly put the game in UBC's control if it wasn't already.
Schwebius was denied his third shutout of the season 8:18 into the third when Jake Fletcher scored his fifth of the season on the power play.
The 'Birds managed to hit the 50 shot mark, nearly outshooting the Cougars by a 2:1 margin as Evanoff faced a total of 97 shots on the weekend. Both teams finished 1-for-5 on the power play.
"Regina's power play is right there with ours, they've got guys there that can really rip it and score," said Butenschon who was much more pleased with his team's penalty killing compared to Friday night. "So, great job, a couple nice adjustments, mostly our defencemen just getting better in shooting lanes. Our 5-on-3 goal I thought was nice just to relax the group and put the score a little bit out of reach."
With Manitoba losing earlier in the day to Alberta and Calgary defeating MacEwan, the Cougars (8-17-3) managed to clinch the sixth and final Canada West playoff berth despite being swept by the T-Birds, meaning next weekend's quarter-final will see UBC host Regina for the best-of-three series.
If this weekend's set was any indication, fans should be in store for a physically demanding, high energy series as the 'Birds will attempt to make their way to the Canada West semifinal for a third consecutive season.
"When we recruited this group, this is kind of what we had in mind. I'd probably be lying to you if I thought we would be able to score as many goals as we can, we're on a real tear. But what I did envision was a heavy group that would finish checks on the forecheck, go to the front of the net, just grind. Just a hard working group that can grind that was going to be able to score when needed. I think the scoring's come since Christmas in bunches and I think we can win in a physical game with these guys as well."
Puck drop for game one of the best-of-three quarterfinal is set for Friday, February 17 at 7:00 p.m. PT at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Game two will go Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and if needed, a third and deciding game is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.
