The UBC Thunderbirds headed into last week's bye as one of the hottest teams in the conference, and they'll look to build on their four-game win streak as they continue a four-game home stand hosting the Manitoba Bisons this Friday and Saturday, November 29 and 30 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
With four games left until the December break, the 'Birds (8-5-1) find themselves tied with the Calgary Dinos for second in the West Division, five points back of the Mount Royal Cougars with exactly half of the Canada West regular season remaining. Following a rough start to the campaign, the T-Birds have played as good as they had at any point in last year's conference championship season heading into the bye – the challenge now is to simply not let their week off from competition change anything.
"We really tried to harp on the habits and details during practice last week," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon whose team has won six of their last seven games. "It's part of the schedule, it's a thing here, you have two weeks between games twice a year. Manitoba's had two already in the first half. Of all my years here I'd say this is the most impressed I've been with the work ethic and attention to details and the focus during the bye week."
The Bisons (2-8-2) hold a pair of games in hand over the rest of the conference but have a steep hill to climb in the second half of the season, a full ten points behind the MacEwan Griffins for the third and final East Division playoff spot.
Manitoba is in the midst of an intensely difficult portion of their schedule with November consisting of weekend series against the Saskatchewan Huskies, Mount Royal Cougars, Calgary Dinos and now the Thunderbirds – teams not only in playoff positions but serious championship contenders, all. While dropping each of their previous six games – currently on a seven game losing skid dating back to an October 26 overtime loss to MacEwan – Manitoba has battled hard and held their own more often than not, in spite of their grueling gauntlet.
"They've added a strong recruiting class, strong WHL players," said Butesnchon of the Bisons. "They added a veteran in Riley Stotts who transferred from Calgary who's a prolific All-Star in our league. Great goaltender in (Braden) Holt who had a great WHL career. It looks like they're still trying to find their rhythm and maybe they're underachieving a little bit this year but hopefully it doesn't happen against us when they figure it out."
The T-Birds have certainly figured themselves out over the past month, boasting a 5-1 record in the month of November along with a goal differential of +14 over that span. UBC's power play during the month is clicking at an impressive 28.6 per cent while the penalty kill boasts an 87 per cent success rate.
Butenschon gives plenty of credit to his squad's depth which continues to provide plenty of internal competition. That, in turn, is keeping everyone honest and focussed on the task at hand.
"We've got outstanding players unable to get in the lineup.
James Form,
Ben Kotylak,
Alex Serraglio sat out a couple games last weekend. Part of why practice was so good during the bye week was because of that internal competition. Those guys are champing at the bit, they're waiting for their opportunity and it's awesome for the culture."
With four games left until the December break, and with an intense battle along with the Dinos and Cougars near the top of the division standings, the T-Birds simply can't afford to take any steps backward, knowing the slim margins which will likely determine critical playoff seeding come February.
"You got to look at the standings. We need to be desperate, we need to be greedy, we need to take any points that are available to us because Calgary and Mount Royal, it's going to come down to probably one or two points at the end of the season. It doesn't matter who we're playing, we need the points."
The only weekend series of the season between the T-Birds and Bisons gets underway Friday at 7:00 p.m. at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. UBC's home stand finale Saturday is set for 3:00 p.m.
Tickets for both games are available now and both will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
