VANCOUVER – For the second consecutive year, the UBC Thunderbirds have advanced to the Canada West Final while also clinching a berth at the U SPORTS National Championship after securing a 3-0 shutout win over the Saskatchewan Huskies in the third and deciding game of their semifinal Sunday afternoon at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
T-Birds standout rookie
Cassidy Rhodes struck first for UBC just 3:11 into the game, on the power play. Her high-slot tip, on a shot from
Hannah Koroll, was the only first-period goal scored for either team in the series and stood up as the winner as
Elise Hugens made 26 saves for her second shutout of the weekend.
"She had three or four chances yesterday to score and just couldn't find the back of the net, so for her as a young player to find a way to get it done and score, credit to her, it was amazing to see her step up," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas.
Goals were hard to come by in a tight-checking battle between the two familiar foes. The teams traded shutouts in the series with Hugens stellar once again for UBC, now with five clean sheets in her last six games.
Opposing goalie Camryn Drever turned aside 106 of the 110 shots she faced in the series. The fourth-year goalie frustrated T-Birds' scorers with multiple key saves over the course of the three game battle.
"We mentally pushed through that challenge, to be shutout and held to one goal in two games all these doubts can set in your mind so it's really a big mental game there," added Thomas. "So, for us to be able to pull through the mental side of that is huge."
Sophia Gaskell scored the second goal of the game at the 3:12 mark of the second period, pinching in from the point at the perfect time, potting a feed from Jacqueline Fleming.
Chanreet Bassi added a late third-period goal to seal the game for the T-Birds.
Having set a Canada West record with 24 regular season wins, UBC is hoping their crowning achievement is yet to come. This year's squad will aim to replicate the T-Birds teams of 2016 and 2017 by winning back-to-back Canada West championships as they get set to host the Mount Royal Cougars next weekend.
"So proud of this group. This is my 10
th active season and to be able to go to Nationals, punch our ticket today, just so proud of that. That aside, we got one weekend ahead of us before then and Mount Royal's going to come in, they got upset last year as the number one seed in the semifinals so it's going to be a great series."
Game one of the Canada West Final is set for 7:00 p.m. PT on Friday, March 3 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Game two will go at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday with game three, if necessary, scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 5.
