VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (15-2-1-0) took down their crosstown rival, the Trinity Western Spartans (9-9-0-0), by a score of 3-1 at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Saturday, sweeping the home-and-home series to close out the first half of the season.
The blue and gold looked dominant in the game's opening stages and jumped out to an early lead. The Spartans seemed to get stronger as the game went on however, and gave the 'Birds everything they could handle down the stretch. UBC outshot Trinity Western 36-12, with the Spartans getting more pucks on the net each period.
"Full marks to Trinity, they just always come at you so hard and battle so hard. They fought right until the very end and made it interesting," reflected UBC head coach
Graham Thomas.
"For us, it was a bit of a hot and cold one. We had a good start, which was a big key to the game, it got us through. But it wasn't a great second period, there's room to find more consistency for us to be even better."
The T-Birds came out flying in the first and got on the board less than five minutes in.
Annalise Wong sped into the Trinity Western zone on the forecheck and quickly corralled the puck when a Spartans defender over-skated it in the left corner. Without hesitation, the veteran forward snapped a pass to the front of the net, finding
Grace Elliott on the doorstep. TWU goaltender Kate Fawcett stoned the Canada West goal leader at point back range, but UBC's
Makenzie McCallum was right there to bang home the rebound for her fifth goal of the year.
In the final 90 seconds of the first frame the 'Birds added to their lead.
Kailee Peppler stopped a Spartans clearing attempt at their blue line and swung the puck back into the middle of the offensive zone. It found the stick of
Kasundra Betinol, who fought off a poke check, skated to the left circle, wheeled around to her forehand and ripped a shot over Fawcett's glove into the top right corner of the net. The goal was the Team China Olympian's second in as many days against Trinity Western, which were also her first two tallies as a T-Bird.
The second period saw the most dazzling goal of the game on an incredible individual effort by U SPORTS goals and points leader
Grace Elliott. The towering forward won the puck in her own zone and went on a weaving rush from end to end, skating around almost every Spartan on the ice. Elliott blew past the last Trinity Western defender at the top of the Spartans' right circle, drove to the net on her backhand while shielding the puck with her body, before quickly switching to her forehand as she reached the crease and snapping it through Fawcett to finish the stunning coast-to-coast effort.
Midway through the frame, the Spartans responded. Seconds after a UBC penalty expired, Emily Karpan winged a low wrister at the UBC net from the blue line. The puck got through several bodies, forcing a reflexive kicksave from
Kayla McDougall. Several Spartans were ready for the rebound, as McDougall made a point blank save, then another, before Jordyn Matthews finally found the back of the twine on the team's fourth shot during the frenzy.
UBC's 3-1 edge held through the third period after each team failed to score on a powerplay, both ending 0/3 with the advantage.
Both teams are now finished play for 2024 and get a well-earned month off before taking the ice again in the new year.
"We need to take the good from our first half, but also know that there's room to grow and room to build," mused Thomas. "We're excited with where our group is at, but at the same time we can't get complacent. We need to keep pushing, keep driving."
"Now we can reset and do some things over the break to continue to get better and get a nice little rest, focus on some studies, and come back fired up for the second half!"
TWU will return to host Manitoba for a back-to-back at the Langley Events Centre starting on January 10
th. UBC starts its second half with a trip to Mount Royal, also on the 10
th. The two teams have another home-and-home series immediately afterward, with the first game at the Langley Events Centre on January 16
th and the second back at Doug Mitchell Thunderbirds Sports Centre the next day.
