CALGARY – For the second straight game, the UBC Thunderbirds staked out a 4-0 lead and secured a 5-2 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars Saturday, sweeping the weekend series to earn a key four points over their division rivals.
Ty Thorpe scored twice and added an assist while
Cole Schwebius made 30 saves to pick up his fourth win in as many starts while the 'Birds (6-5-1) have now won four of their last five and have risen back above .500 on the season.
"It was another solid effort by the boys," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon, following the impressive road trip. "We talked about coming here and having a bit of a redemption tour for the group after what happened the first time. So we played six periods of T-Bird hockey, and T-Bird hockey that gave us success last year. It was probably the first weekend where it was as close as it was to last year."
Following a bit of an early onslaught by the Cougars (7-3), the T-Birds scored twice within a three minute span to open a 2-0 lead.
Jake Wright scored his fifth of the season at the 11:28 mark, followed by
Jonny Lambos' second.
Just 1:06 into the second, Thorpe scored his first of two while
Josh Williams added another on the power play just over two minutes later for the 4-0 T-Birds advantage.
Justin Lies got one back for the Cougars before the period was out with his sixth of the season on the man advantage. MRU finished the game 1-for-8 on the power play while the T-Birds went 1-for-6 in yet another busy night for special teams.
Thorpe's second of the game and fifth of the season restored UBC's four-goal advantage 3:42 into the third. The Cougars cut the lead back to three with what turned out to be the final goal of the contest with Dawson Milliken's first of the season.
The weekend sweep for the 'Birds evens the season series with the Cougars at two games apiece while UBC is now tied with Calgary for second in the West Division, just one point back of MRU.
"It's starting to get exciting to see things come together, but it wasn't easy," said Butenschon of the weekend finale. "In the first period I thought coming out of the gates they came hard. Schweebs made some good saves and it almost took us a few minutes to wake up. Mount Royal's a great team, they have great players there who have a lot of success in our league and they have pride too, so they came and threw a lot at us. But we're so deep and we knew that that was kind of the best they had early on and we weathered the storm."
The 'Birds and Cougars will play twice more this regular season in what could be a pivotal weekend series in Vancouver the second week of January.
Riding higher now having re-found some of their swagger, the T-Birds know they can't rest on their laurels one bit, especially considering what lies immediately in their path – a visit from the Dinos next weekend.
"We're sort of starting to round into form. But, it's still going to be extremely difficult to put up points in this league. We got Calgary coming in next weekend and we got to have the same mindset, we have to just treat it like playoff hockey. We have to manufacture wins no matter how it happens out there and then we can go into our bye week and catch our breath."
The Dinos return to the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre for the second time this year after sweeping the 'Birds in the 2024-25 season opening series. Puck drop for the first game of the weekend double dip is set for 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 15.
Tickets are available now.
