VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds picked up where they left off earlier this week, earning their second consecutive victory over the Trinity Western Spartans, a 5-2 win on Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. UBC's offence was firing on all cylinders, completing the home-and-home series by outscored their opponent 12-3 with six T-Birds notching their first goal of the season in the process.
"We're getting there. We've got a skilled group, anybody on that team has the ability to make plays and execute," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon.
After scoring 17 seconds into the game on Wednesday night, the high-powered T-Birds offence struck first again in Friday night's grudge match. Fourth-year defenceman
Conner McDonald tallied his first goal of the season on a well-placed wrister from the point, just 2:06 into the game.
Scott Atkinson extended the T-Birds lead to 2-0, making the Spartans (0-4) pay for a defensive zone turnover, sniping an unassisted goal past TWU goalie Leon Sommer.
A Luke Spadafora high-sticking penalty would prove further costly for the struggling Spartans.
Josh Williams notched his first goal of the season just 15 seconds into the ensuing power play, potting home a lose puck in front of the Spartans net. Teammates
Sasha Mutala and
Sam Huo setup up the 3-0 goal, both tallying their second assists of the period.
The Spartans responded just over a minute later as Connor Farren caused a turnover on the forecheck, teammate Jonathan Krahn fed a pass to Christian Lowe who sniped a top-shelf goal past T-Birds goalie
Brett Mirwald cutting the lead to 3-1. However, UBC (2-3-1) would respond as
Jake Wright stepped onto the ice and right into a one-time feed from
Liam Kindree, giving UBC the 4-1 lead after a high-scoring first-period.
UBC did have some blemishes, however, sending Trinity Western to the power play five times in the game. However, captain Jesse Pomeroy's low-blocker snipe from the point was the lone goal on the man advantage for the Spartans. It was an impressive showing from the T-Birds penalty kill, especially considering third-year defender
Jake Lee left the game in the first period, due to injury.
"That's not easy when one of your main minute guys goes down early and you're killing all those penalties," added Butenschon. "So, I thought they battled and did a great job back there."
The Thunderbirds will look to continue their winning ways next weekend at home but face a tough test as the undefeated University of Alberta Golden Bears (5-0) come to town.
"Well, they look like they're buzzing right now," said Butenschon of the Bears. "We were watching them play (versus Saskatchewan) earlier tonight and they're playing with a ton of energy and physicality and it was really impressive."
Trinity Western will look for their first win of the season as they travel to Calgary for a weekend series starting next Friday night against the Dinos (2-2-1).
