EDMONTON – A four goal explosion in the second period powered the UBC Thunderbirds to a convincing 5-1 win over the Alberta Golden Bears Friday night at Clare Drake Arena.
Sasha Mutala kept his hot streak alive with a pair of goals and a helper while
Brett Mirwald was spectacular between the pipes making 31 saves for his third win of the season, backstopping the 'Birds to a fourth straight victory.
"We were really well prepared, fully engaged, ready to rock from the opening faceoff," said UBC head coach, Sven Butenschon, following the full value victory. "Anytime you come up to play U of A at the Clare Drake, the juices are flowing, it's really intense, you're expecting to play a hard game, a physical game. The message to the guys was just to match their work ethic and competitiveness and go toe-to-toe with them. I feel like we have more skill than they do and that was going to be the difference and I think we followed the game plan to perfection today."
The Thunderbirds were the aggressors for the majority of a scoreless first, as they clanked a couple shots off the post and muddied the neutral zone to stop a potent Alberta attack. They were outshot in the frame by the hosts, however, as Mirwald stood strong near the latter half of the period.
UBC's offence got their wheels under them in the second, starting with a beautiful behind-the-net feed from
Chris Douglas that found Mutala wide open in the slot. The former Tri-City American unleashed a fiery wrister to open scoring at the 5:18 mark.
Mutala struck again 11 minutes later on the power play, burying a cross-ice feed in the offensive zone to beat a sprawling Tyler Palmer for a two-goal lead.
Douglas added to the barrage at 17:53 with his second of the season, finishing from a cross-ice
Scott Atkinson feed.
Fellow veteran
Liam Kindree earned his first of the campaign just inside the final minute of the period to further quiet an already stunned Clare Drake crowd.
"If you go back over the years, the most success we've had, especially when we won the Canada West championship two years ago, our forecheck was incredible," Butenschon added. "Everybody across Canada was talking about it. We still have most of those players, most of that team's back so we're trying to use that a bit more to create turnovers so Alberta defencemen have less time, less space."
Tyson Laventure would get the Bears on the board early in the third period, breaking away from the crowd near the blue line and sniping five-hole for his team-leading third goal of the year to shrink the deficit to three.
However, with seven minutes left in the game,
Jake Lee would throw a puck on net from the line that went top shelf for the dagger goal to restore the 'Birds' four-goal advantage.
For Mirwald, it marked his third win in as many starts while boosting his season save percentage to an impressive .946.
"He's been outstanding right from day one. He's come with a brilliant attitude, he wants to prove last year wasn't the real Brett Mirwald and this is who he is. Every game he seems to be getting even better. One thing about him is he's a fighter, so the more hostile the environment, the tougher the games are I think that's when you see Brett rise to the occasion and I think that's why he played so well tonight in this rink."
The 'Birds will look to extend their win streak and earn a second consecutive weekend sweep as they battle the Bears Saturday in what is UBC's final contest before an early season bye week.
Puck drop at Clare Drake is set for 6:00 p.m. PT with the game available live on
Canada West TV.
