VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds dropped a back-and-forth game two of the Canada West semifinal series to the Calgary Dinos 1-0 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon, setting up a third and deciding game on Sunday.
The upset is only UBC's second regulation loss in their 2023-24 campaign, having dropped one game of the regular season to the Dinos back in November. Contrary to the final score, the 'Birds held the edge in possession time and outchanced their opponents throughout the game.
"It's just the game of hockey," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "Sometimes the puck goes in, and sometimes it doesn't. There are definitely some things we can do to tidy up on offence. At the end of the day, we played well. I thought we played better today than we did yesterday. We've just got to believe in that and keep coming ready to play even better tomorrow."
Fourth-year goaltender Gabriella Durante had a massive game for the visitors and earned her third shutout of the postseason, stopping 32 UBC attempts.
"I'll give our group a ton of credit," said Calgary head coach Josh Gosling. "They elevated today and found that next level. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun. I think both teams are going to come out with a lot of fire tomorrow."
After a scoreless first period with 13-4 shots on goal in favour of UBC, the two teams brought the energy into the second. Just over a minute into the second frame, Rebecca Clarke opened the scoring with a one-timer from the high slot. With newfound urgency, the 'Birds responded with a series of close scoring chances by
Sophia Gaskell and
Joelle Fiala. Dinos goalie Durante showed no nerves, saving all 11 UBC shots in the period.
As the clock wound down in the third period, the tension between the two teams manifested itself in the form of penalties. The Dinos threatened with a breakaway from Brooke Dennett while shorthanded, but the shot was stopped by
Elise Hugens. Despite a flurry of shots in the final minutes of the period, UBC fell short of ending the series in two games.
"We did a good job today and didn't get the result we wanted," added Thomas. "We believe in this group a lot and they believe in each other. It's just a little adversity, which is good for us, and we're accepting the challenge."
The T-Birds and Dinos will battle it out in the final game of the best-of-three Canada West semifinal series on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Tickets are available online and the game will also be available live on
Canada West TV.
