VANCOUVER – For the first time in program history, the UBC Thunderbirds will host the Canada West Final after advancing past the Alberta Golden Bears with a 4-0 victory in game three of their semifinal series Sunday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.

T-Birds captain Chris Douglas scored twice while Cole Schwebius made 23 saves for his first Canada West playoff shutout as UBC booked their ticket to a third conference final in the last four seasons, and a berth at the upcoming University Cup national championship.

"Really proud of the guys, it was a gutsy playoff performance today," said UBC head coach Sven Butenschon who has guided his team to their first playoff series victory over Alberta since 2020.  "Nothing came easy. They made us earn everything we got out there and it was just kind of how we prepared all week, that it wasn't going to be easy. The guys just kept battling and persevered and everybody contributed."



Douglas's first of the night came on UBC's second power play of the game, mid-way through the first, re-directing a Sam Huo pass.

A tight battle continued throughout the ensuing 30 minutes or so until Scott Atkinson doubled the T-Birds' advantage at the 18:27 mark of the second with his second of the series. Liam Kindree stripped the puck off a Bears defenceman behind Alberta's net and fed it out front for Atkinson's eighth post-season goal in 12 games as a T-Bird.

Just 19 seconds later, UBC struck again when Matthew Smith's point shot got past a screened Ethan Kruger.

"That was huge. They got some high end guys there that can just in one or two chances bury you," said Butenschon of the quick fire end to the period. "Just getting a little bit of separation there was huge."



With their season on the ropes, the Bears outshot UBC by a 10-4 margin in the third with a trio of power plays in the period. But Schwebius remained perfect while his penalty killers cleared pucks out of harm's way as the T-Birds went a perfect 10-for-10 shorthanded over the course of the series.

Kruger headed to the Bear's bench with five minutes remaining to begin what turned out to be their final power play of the game for the 6-on-4 advantage. Shortly after UBC completed the kill, Douglas chipped the puck off the glass on a perfect ricochet into the open net for his second multi-goal playoff game in the blue and gold.

The series victory is UBC's second in 11 total post-season meetings with Alberta, and the first on home-ice. The win means the T-Birds will now host the defending conference champion Calgary Dinos for a best-of-three series starting Friday, March 1.



Not only is next week's conference final the first ever to be hosted by UBC, it's also an opportunity for the 'Birds to claim their first Canada West banner in 53 years.

"It means a lot. I'm already thinking about next week, I can't wait. Normally I'm all about celebrating the wins in life, but in my (post-game) talk to the guys we're going to try to keep it business-like here and start focussing on next week real quick. We're not satisfied. We set a bar for ourselves and we're not even close to that yet."

Puck drop for game one of the Canada West Final is set for 7:00 p.m. PT at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Game two goes Saturday at 7 and game three – if necessary – is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sunday.