VANCOUVER – For the second time in as many years and the fifth time in program history, the UBC Thunderbirds are Canada West champions.
The only goal in the third and deciding game between the T-Birds and Mount Royal Cougars came 6:28 into the third period when
Cassidy Rhodes rifled the puck on the power play.
Elise Hugens made 19 saves for her fourth win and third shutout of the Canada West playoffs.
"It's an incredible feeling, there's nothing like it," said an ecstatic
Graham Thomas after his team's gritty championship win. "Especially with this group, this group's been hungry right from the beginning, right from the offseason last year with what happened with us at nationals. Our resilience that we've shown throughout the season, throughout this series…Mount Royal, give full credit to them, they're a fantastic team. They battled us really hard and it was a great series. Just really, really proud of the group."
While the T-Birds came out as champions in the end, the game was as tight as the score indicated right from the opening faceoff with shots on goal scarce and chances even harder to come by.
"I thought it was our best effort of the weekend," said Mount Royal head coach Scott Rivett. "Certainly two tight teams, there wasn't a lot of space, nobody wanted to give up that big play…Obviously we're disappointed with the end result this weekend but we'll try to use it as fuel as we move forward in the next couple weeks here and try to get rested up and ready to go."
Late in the second period the T-Birds had a number of scoring chances resulting from relentless pressure in Mount Royal's zone. But goaltender Kaitlyn Ross came up with a couple stops and the Cougars continued to get sticks in shooting lanes, managing to keep the game scoreless after 40 minutes.
UBC came out for the third period with a sense of purpose not as visible earlier in the game. The 'Birds dominated puck possession and zone time early in the frame and earned their second power play six minutes in where Rhodes finally broke the deadlock with her second of the playoffs.
Chanreet Bassi made a cross-seam pass after sucking in the penalty killers and Rhodes roofed the puck just under the bar for what stood up as the series winning goal.
The Cougars put Ross on the bench for the extra attacker with more than two minutes remaining but the T-Birds held strong to secure their second back-to-back championship win in the last eight years.
"This year just presented more adversity and more challenges mentally," added Thomas after an incredibly tight series that very much came down to the wire. "To be able to feel what that adversity feels like and be able to come out on the other end is really powerful so I think it will give us some good confidence going into nationals."
Both the T-Birds and Cougars will soon make their way to Montreal for the U SPORTS National Championship tournament which gets underway on Thursday, March 16.
