VANCOUVER – In front of a sold out Winter Classic crowd, the UBC Thunderbirds broke a third period deadlock, scoring twice in the final 20 minutes to earn a 3-1 victory over the Trinity Western Spartans Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Spartans netminder Raphael Audet did all he could to keep his team in it, making 49 saves – 22 of them in the second period alone – but UBC's relentless attack eventually proved to be too much for the visitors who officially found themselves eliminated from the Canada West post-season race. The T-Birds (14-6-1), meanwhile, managed to stay within three points of the West Division leading Mount Royal Cougars with seven games remaining on the schedule.
"We always play with energy and jam and the Winter Classic, there's always a little more to it," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon, whose squad thoroughly outplayed the Spartans in contrast to the tight score line. "I loved the physicality early on by both teams, it was awesome to see both teams just getting after it. Somebody reminded me that that's the third time we've gone into the third period tied with those guys so, they're getting better, they're improving. When the building's bumping like that, the ice is usually not great so the puck wasn't cooperating all the time but the message was, don't change, keep going, if it takes 60 shots it takes 60 shots."
The T-Birds came out absolutely flying out of the gate, the ice tilted with the puck staying almost entirely in the Spartans' (3-17-1) zone for the first half of the opening period. But Audet's brilliance in goal and some missed opportunities kept things even, the capacity crowd buzzing with anticipation, just waiting for an opportunity to explode.
That emotional outburst came when
Ben Kotylak opened scoring with his first of the season at the 16:46 mark. A
James Form pass deflected off a Spartans stick and into the air, but Kotylak showed plenty of poise, gloving it down to his stick and snapping a quick shot past Audet.
Despite outshooting the Spartans 22-5 in the second, the only goal of the frame came off the stick of Jonathan Krahn, his seventh of the season tying the game at 12:32, the only puck to get past
Cole Schwebius on the night. Krahn had slipped behind UBC's defence and received a feed from Luke Spadafora to put him on a late breakaway, slipping the puck five-hole.
There was plenty of reason to be frustrated, but the T-Birds stuck to it and got rewarded when
Conner McDonald restored UBC's lead five minutes into the third.
Carson Latimer was stopped on a wraparound attempt, but the veteran blue liner shot home the rebound for his third of the campaign.
Schwebius wasn't overly busy but was forced to make a couple big saves in the final period while the Spartans also rang one off the crossbar late. But
Jake Wright put the game on ice, hitting the empty net with 55 seconds on the clock for his team-leading 11
th.
The Spartans certainly gave a strong effort Friday in their attempt to keep their slim post-season hopes alive while also trying to play spoiler to UBC's Winter Classic party. But the 'Birds stuck to their guns and eventually got the result they deserved.
"We're missing three offensive players so you got to really grind and earn your goals," said Butenschon, referencing
Jake Lee,
Sam Huo and
Sasha Mutala who all remain with team Canada's FISU games squad in Italy. "Last week against Mount Royal on Saturday, it was a very tight checking game again and we got enough character, enough grit and enough competitive individuals in there that in those kind of games, I know we're going to come out on top more times than not."
For Kotylak's line to come up as big as they did in relatively limited ice time also proved to be a significant boost well beyond the goal itself.
"Our fourth line got the goal early on, they were outstanding all game long and that makes a coach feel great if your fourth line gets on the scoreboard and plays almost the entire game in the offensive zone. They were outstanding. We don't recruit players just for skill or for on-ice performance, we recruit high character guys that I can count on and I can trust and no matter what, they put the team first and Ben is one of those guys. The team was so happy, you should have heard the dressing room after, everybody was so happy for him."
The 'Birds and Spartans are back at it again in Langley Saturday night for their sixth and final battle this regular season. Puck drop at the Langley Events Centre is set for 7:00 p.m. with the game available live on
Canada West TV.
