VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds are off to a roaring start to the 2023-24 Canada West season having completed the rare weekend sweep of the Alberta Golden Bears by way of a 4-2 victory Saturday afternoon at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
While not as dominant in any particular aspect as Friday night's home opening win, the Thunderbirds got a key second period power play goal from
Sam Huo and a superb performance in net from second year goaltender
Kaeden Lane as UBC has started the new campaign 2-0 for the second time in the last three seasons.
"It's a great start. There's a lot of hockey left, but so far so good," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon. "I think the most impressive thing is it was a different kind of game today. Yesterday everything came kind of easy and execution was there. Tonight was a bit of a sloppy affair and we found a different way to win."
Despite handing the T-Birds the first power play of the game – a dangerous proposition given UBC's 3-for-7 conversion rate Friday night – the Golden Bears killed it off and managed to open scoring themselves just prior to the halfway point of the period. Jakin Smallwood took advantage of a turnover behind the T-Bird net and passed across the top of the crease for Cam Wiebe who scored his first of the season.
A team known for their resilience and quick responses, the T-Birds lived up to that billing as
Ben Kotylak made the Bears pay for a defensive zone gaffe of their own, evening the score with his first as a Thunderbird just over three minutes later.
"That was a huge goal because we've talked a lot about having a good start, and we weren't very good," said Butenschon. "Alberta pushed back, they got the first goal and then Benny gets that goal for us and it really settled the bench down and gave us another chance for a better start."
While Alberta was the better team in the opening period, the Thunderbirds slowly shifted things in their favour while scoring four straight.
Huo earned his first of the season on the power play at 6:27 of the second when he converted on a one-timer off a
Sasha Mutala pass to give UBC the 2-1 lead.
Midway through the third, veteran T-Bird defenceman
Ryan Pouliot deftly held the puck in at the blue line and sent a low shot through traffic and past Alberta goaltender Ethan Kruger.
Facing a two-goal deficit late in the third, the Bears called a timeout with nearly four minutes remaining, keeping Kruger on the bench afterwards for the extra attacker.
Jonathan Smart hit the empty net all the way from his own zone to make it a 4-1 lead, seemingly putting the game on ice.
But a five minute major assessed to
Tian Rask with 1:47 left on the clock gave the visitors some late hope. The Bears did get one back on the power play from Joel Sexsmith but it came with just 11 seconds remaining as UBC's lead was just too great to overcome.
Lane finished the game with 22 saves and while not a heavy workload, many of those came on grade 'A' chances, particularly in the second period where he made 13 stops.
"It's a tough turnaround and we normally like to share the net because we have three awesome goalies but I saw something last night, just the way he was tracking the puck and seeing the play and that's why we went with him today. Sure enough it was more of the same, just good anticipation, a great job out there."
The 2-0 T-Birds will now hit the road for the first time this season when they visit the Regina Cougars next Friday and Saturday, October 6 and 7.
