VANCOUVER – The trek to get back to a third straight Canada West final officially gets underway Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre as the UBC Thunderbirds open up the 2023 post-season hosting the Regina Cougars in a best-of-three quarter-final series.
Riding a program-record 12-game win streak, the 'Birds face a familiar opponent in the Cougars having just completed a weekend sweep over Regina last weekend. But when it comes to the Canada West playoffs, both teams are entering uncharted waters having never met beyond the regular season until now.
At 20-6-2, the 'Birds finished the 2022-23 regular season with new program highs in wins and points. The 8-17-3 Cougars edged out the MacEwan Griffins to secure the sixth and final Canada West playoff berth despite heading into the postseason on a five game losing skid.
Hosting a playoff series for the second straight season and third time in the last four, the T-Birds face a Cougars team looking to advance beyond the quarter-finals for the first time since 2009.
"They're physical, their goaltender's solid, they have four defencemen that play a lot of minutes that are all outstanding," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon, sizing up his team's opponent. "In my opinion, I think they have probably the best top four defence in the league so we need to make it hard on those four because a lot of their offence is driven from the back end when they're on the ice."
That production from Regina's defence was on clear display just last weekend when the Cougars blue line racked up six points, led by Tyler Heidt's goal and two assists, all of which came on the power play.
Special teams turned out to be an overly significant aspect in the final weekend series of the regular season with Regina scoring all four of their weekend goals on the man advantage. But when looking at the season on the whole, UBC heads into the playoffs with a conference leading execution rate of an even 27 per cent.
Including the 'Birds' power play prowess, perhaps the most impressive component this season has been their scoring depth. Led by rookie forward
Sasha Mutala's 35 points – the highest point total by any T-Bird since Cole Wilson in 2013-14 – seven different skaters boasted 22 points or more while 12 hit at least double digits.
"We're really finding our game here down the stretch and in the second half, and we welcome any opponent right now regardless of the situation," added Butenschon whose team finished the regular season averaging 4.29 goals per game, surpassed only by Calgary and Alberta. "Now the games are going to mean that much more, so I'm expecting our group to take another step. When you just look at the stat sheet and go down the column and see guys on the first, second, third, fourth line with ten goals, 14 assists, spread out along the lineup, you got to think that's difficult for the opposing team's staff and players to focus on…it's great to see the depth coming through right now."
The hope for the 'Birds is that depth helps propel the young team to new heights, building on back-to-back trips to the U SPORTS National Championship.
"We've talked about the last few years how we made it to nationals but we haven't really won anything, we've kind of squeaked in through the back door. I think it's time to take another step forward and start to win some hardware and go to nationals while you're hot and winning hockey games. But as I say that, everybody says that. We're ranked fifth now (in the latest U SPORTS Top 10) and three of the top five teams are from Canada West and only two get to go to nationals."
UBC swept the season series against Regina by a combined 19-7 margin with the Cougars picking up a single point against the T-Birds in an overtime loss in early December. If familiarity breeds contempt, there should be no shortage of animosity when the two teams hit the ice Friday night.
Faceoff for game one of the Canada West quarter-final series is set for 7:00 p.m. PT at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Game two of the best-of-three series goes Saturday at 7:00 p.m. with game three – if necessary – scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Tickets are available online now and all games will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
