After a dynamite offensive performance on the road against the Bisons, the UBC Thunderbirds are back in B.C. for a home-and-home series against the Trinity Western Spartans to finish off the first half of the Canada West season.
The two teams first play in Langley on Friday, December 6th, before heading to Vancouver on Saturday, December 7th. That Friday clash will be the fifth straight road game for the T-Birds, the longest such stretch they will have this season.
13-2-1 on the year and ranked #2 in the country, the Thunderbirds are on quite the hot streak. They started the season 2-2, but now haven't lost in regulation for nearly two months, shooting back up to the top of the conference standings.
Chanreet Bassi is the reigning Canada West Player of the Week, the sixth time this season that award has gone to a Thunderbird. The fifth-year forward notched five points over the two games in Manitoba this past weekend, including her first career hat trick on Saturday.
The offensive outburst moved her up into a tie for second place on the Canada West scoring leaderboard with 15 points in 16 games. That's one point ahead of
Mackenzie Kordic, and nine behind
Grace Elliott whose phenomenal start to the season has her sitting on 10 goals and 14 assists, the latter already a career-best.
UBC as a whole has been firing offensively through the first half of the season. Their 56 goals scored is 15 more than any other team, and they've scored at least three in seven of their last eight games. That includes a 10-2 shellacking of Manitoba last time out, which broke the program record for goals in a game.
Next up are the Spartans, who the T-Birds beat twice back in mid-October to kickstart their current run of form. TWU sit third in the West Division with a 9-7-0 record, as they look to try and gain some breathing room over the playoff line. They enter this week on a high, having won eight of their last ten games after a slow start to the year.
The Spartans have a balanced offence, with four players sitting on four goals each to share the team lead. Olivia Leier is tops in overall points with nine, while Kyra Anderson, Kyra McDonald and Kara Yackel all have exactly four goals and four assists.
UBC is 15-0 all-time in conference play against the Spartans, although it took a late goal from rookie
Vanessa Schaefer to scrape a 1-0 win in Langley in their first meeting this season.
This weekend is the final time the T-Birds will take to the ice before the winter break. With five weeks in between games, the reigning conference champs aim for an emphatic end to the first half of the season.
Friday's game begins at 7:00 p.m. (PT) at the Langley Events Centre. The rematch is at 3:00 p.m. (PT) at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbirds Sports Centre.
