Following an impressive road sweep of the Mount Royal Cougars last weekend, the Canada West leading UBC Thunderbirds are gearing up for their final home-and-home set with crosstown rival Trinity Western starting Thursday, January 16 in Langley and concluding Friday at home for the 2025 Winter Classic.
Now riding a six-game win streak, the T-Birds (17-2-1) have already clinched a playoff berth while opening up a six point lead over MRU atop the West Division.
Securing first place and a coveted first round post-season bye is within UBC's grasp, but the team knows there's no room for complacency.
"We have to continue to just focus on us and the process and how we're playing," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "We need to continue to focus on preparing to close out game two (of a weekend series) and play playoff hockey and getting ready for this final push. We need to be more consistent and we need to just be sharper on our execution and performance on back-to-back games and every single game moving forward. It's the same going into this weekend, we could have all sorts of excuses with travel and a short turnaround and we're down some bodies but we just have to find a way to keep focus on our game and getting ready to compete."
Having already earned the season series edge over the Spartans (10-10), outscoring their provincial rivals by a combined 11-2 in their previous four meetings, the 'Birds fully expect to face a hungry team in the hunt to make the playoffs for the second time in the last three seasons.
"Their staff and their team, they're doing an amazing job building that program," said Thomas of the Spartans who are one win away from tying a program record in their short Canada West existence. "They're getting some great recruits and are playing well as a team. They're playing the right way, they play hard and they're always going to come and compete. It helps the rivalry to have good competition and it makes us better, we have to be sharper."
Friday night's final game of the regular season vs the Spartans will be the third straight such battle in the Winter Classic, a meaningful event for the UBC program.
"It's fun to be in that atmosphere, it's also fun to have the men's team hosting too, kind of like playoffs last year. It's good for hockey in general and it's just a fun event to connect with alumni and supporters. Off the heels of the PWHL game (at Rogers Arena) with the 19,000 going to support women's hockey and talk of a pro team potentially coming to Vancouver, it's just exciting for women's hockey to have events like this and to showcase our talent and our game."
Friday afternoon will be the team's first home game in well over a month, but also the first of three straight in Vancouver with five of their final eight games on home ice.
"It allows us to train more, to prepare more and just be a little bit more rested going into the final push. But at the same time we can't take anything for granted, we have to continue to be sharp. Hopefully it's an advantage, but only if we use it as an advantage and not rely on it to be more than it is."
Puck drop Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre is set for 7:00 p.m. Friday's Winter Classic gets underway at 4:00 p.m. at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Tickets for the biggest indoor festival of the campus calendar are on sale now!
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