MONTREAL –
Sophia Gaskell scored six minutes into overtime to send the UBC Thunderbirds past the St. Francis Xavier X-Women and into Saturday's U SPORTS National Championship semifinals.
After staking out a 2-0 lead seven minutes into the third period, St. FX scored twice within a three minute span to tie the game and stun the T-Birds.
But in a reversal of fortunes from the 2022 quarter-finals, the T-Birds prevailed with Gaskell's second of the game as UBC will face either the Concordia Stingers or the Nipissing Lakers Saturday night.
"Full marks to St. FX, they came at us so hard, it's a fantastic team over there," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "They pushed us right to the brink there. It was just amazing that we could push through that adversity, especially late in the third…Credit to our group for staying focussed and recovering ourselves and finding a way to get it done."
The T-Birds opened scoring with just under five minutes remaining in the opening period, capitalizing on their third power play of the game. X-Women goaltender Jamie Johnson made a save off a Gaskell point shot, but couldn't freeze the puck leading to
Rylind MacKinnon jamming home the rebound to get UBC on the board.
The score remained 1-0 heading into the final period when a flurry of activity quickly saw the game tied up at two goals apiece.
Just moments after a St. FX goal was disallowed due to the net being dislodged, the T-Birds doubled their lead with Gaskell's first of the afternoon.
Joelle Fiala fed the puck out of the corner and Gaskell leaned into a low shot that got past a partially screened Johnson.
But almost as quickly as UBC took the multi-goal lead, the X-Women answered back when Ellie Brown converted on a two-on-one at the 8:47 mark.
Less than three minutes later, St. FX had momentum fully on their side when Lauren Dabrowski deflected the puck low in the slot to tie the game.
To make matters worse for the T-Birds, they soon found themselves on a lengthy 5-on-3 penalty kill after a puck was cleared over the glass while already a skater short.
But a timeout was called and the 'Birds got to work, completing the kill and getting things settled down but with time ticking away in regulation.
Facing overtime in their quarter-final for the second consecutive year, the 'Birds got some redemption after falling to the Nipissing Lakers in Charlottetown last year.
Both teams had chances in the ten minute 4-on-4 overtime period, including MacKinnon whose shot hit the post.
Then with just over four minutes remaining, Gaskell's point shot went five-hole past Johnson as the T-Birds poured off the bench in a mixture of elation and relief.
"It was kind of that monkey off the back moment we needed," added Thomas. "It wasn't our best hockey, it wasn't our best game and we definitely got to learn from that. Sticking to the game plan and playing our game, we got off script there for too long. But at the end of the day we found a way and this is a big moment for us. This group has not gotten through that very hard quarter-final game so this is new territory but I think it's going to give us confidence."
The 'Birds scored just the one power play goal on eight chances but held the X-Women off the board on five of their own, including the long third period 5-on-3.
The win means UBC will play in a U SPORTS semifinal for the first time 2017 with a chance to advance to their first gold medal game since 2016.
"We've talked all year of not getting our highs too high and our lows too low. It was a tough, physical, hard, emotional game so we just have to get rested and recovered and focussed on tomorrow."
Puck drop for the semifinal is set for 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT at Université de Montréal's CEPSUM Arena. The game will be streaming live on
CBC Sports' website or the CBC Sports YouTube page.
