After five long weeks, the UBC Thunderbirds return to Canada West action this weekend with a bang, hosting the Mount Royal Cougars for a first-place West Division showdown at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.

Heading into the December break on an eight-game win streak that began with a pair of victories over the Cougars in Calgary back in early November, the T-Birds (12-5-1) enter the final ten games of the regular season three points back of MRU (14-4) and three ahead of the Calgary Dinos in what's become a heavyweight fight to the finish to earn a coveted first round playoff bye.

"We're going to try to be a little short-sighted, especially with our first games back, just worry about yourself and your habits and details, your first shift," said UBC head coach, Sven Butenschon who is emphasizing simplicity returning from the break against an MRU team which has already started the new year with a pair of wins last weekend against the Dinos. "They're coming in here feeling really good about themselves. If we want to finish in first place we kind of need to win both, but there's still a lot of hockey left after."



While the 'Birds didn't have any Canada West action on their schedule last weekend, the team did travel to Nanaimo for an exhibition contest against a BCIHL all-star squad, earning a convincing 8-0 win.

"We wanted to get the guys together, get them connected a little bit after such a long break on and off the ice," Butenschon added. "It's hard to replicate in practice the game situation stuff so we wanted to work on some new line combinations, new power play looks, new PK. It's so important for goalies to get their sight lines down along with some game situation stuff. In the summertime when we were talking about it I was kind of on the fence but now that we're back I thought it went really well and I'm really glad we did it."

Entering their final weekend series of the regular season against the Cougars with a 2-2 record in their previous four matchups, the T-Birds are confident knowing they've played some of their best hockey against the current division leaders, especially at even-strength at which UBC has conceded just two goals in those four contests.

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"I thought of the four games we played in their rink, three of the four games we were outstanding. We have to stay out of the box, we need to use our depth. They got a really nice D corps there, they got a great goaltender. We have to use our forecheck and size up front to punish other teams' defencemen and just keep tenderizing them over the weekend so that maybe by the third period, one defenceman's going to get a little nervous back there and then that's when we make teams pay. It's the same things that give us success every weekend."

One additional challenge for the UBC this weekend will be playing without three of their top skaters in 2024 All-Canadian defenceman Jake Lee, as well as this year's top two leading scorers in forwards Sasha Mutala and Sam Huo, all of whom are competing with Team Canada at the FISU Games which get underway this weekend in Italy.

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"We've got more than enough in that room to get the job done. Part of the reason we were excited to do that game last weekend was, we didn't play any of those three guys. So everybody got lots of opportunity, everybody got different looks here and there, they got some chemistry with their new line combinations, so that was huge. They did well with it, guys who normally don't get much ice or opportunity, they made the best of it, we really liked the new look. When you look at our D corps, losing Jake Lee is a big hole, big shoes to feel. But we won two games in their rink when he wasn't with us, he was injured at the time so that gives us even more confidence that we can get the job done."

Puck drop for the T-Birds' first conference action of 2025 is set for Friday, January 10 at 7:00 p.m. with Saturday's final regular season battle against the Cougars scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Tickets for both games at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre are available now and both will be streamed live on Canada West TV.