It's been four years since the Alberta Pandas (2-0-2) last came to Vancouver as the defending Canada West champions, but Friday night the UBC Thunderbirds (4-0) will get their first crack this season at their inter-provincial rivals, the first battle between the two at Point Grey since last year's conference final series.
The Pandas ended what had been a 13-game home ice undefeated streak for UBC by claiming the 2025 Canada West banner with a two-game series sweep in early March.
While the 'Birds definitely have that memory in the back of their minds, the emphasis now is on this season, and the opportunity to write a new chapter.
"We talked about it early in the week. Everybody knows about it, the freshmen are aware of it," said UBC head coach,
Graham Thomas, whose team did get a measure of revenge against Alberta by defeating the Pandas in the consolation final at last year's U SPORTS national championship. "We already had the chance to play them again so I think it's more about respecting the champions. These are the defending champions coming in and we got to make sure we're bringing our best."
The T-Birds have roared out of the gate to start the new season, the only undefeated team remaining in the conference posting back-to-back weekend sweeps over MacEwan and Trinity Western.
An area of focus for UBC is the team's power play which has scored just once on 20 opportunities thus far while the penalty kill leads the west division at 93.1 per cent.
"We're putting wins together which is always great, but at the same time our focus has been on getting better, playing the right way and just sticking to the process of what we have to do," said Thomas who still sees plenty of room for growth. "One of the big areas is special teams, the PK's been really good but the power play needs to be better. We need to be more dynamic and be more of a threat consistently and just bearing down and executing."
After an overtime loss and a shootout loss to begin the campaign, the Pandas found their footing by sweeping the Griffins in a home-and-home series last weekend on the back of a strong special teams performance with a pair of power play goals and a perfect 8-for-8 PK.
It all adds up to an appropriate early season battle for first place in the division this weekend.
"I'd still rather have the target on our back and be the (defending) champions, but they've got the title that everyone wants to win off of them, it's something that definitely will add some fuel."
Puck drop Friday is set for 7:00 p.m. at Father Bauer Arena with Saturday's rematch scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Tickets for both games are
available online and both will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
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