VANCOUVER – You could have possibly scripted a better regular season for the Thunderbirds. 14 games, 14 wins, zero goals allowed. Records extended and broken. Top seed in Canada West.
But now the regular season is over, and playoffs are always a different beast.
The T-Birds certainly had that lesson reminded two seasons ago, when they finished with the top record in the Canada West regular season only to fall in the conference championship game to the Trinity Western Spartans.
They got their revenge the following year, winning the program's 17th Canada West title on the road in Calgary last season, and now will try and make it back-to-back banners at home.
Before they can think about a medal game though, they must first make it past the Saskatchewan Huskies in the quarterfinal round, played at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday, October 25th. The Huskies come into the postseason as the No. 4 seed in the Prairie Division, sporting an 8-5-1 record.
"We have had a lot of games in our division that have felt like playoff matches with the intensity and compete," said UBC head coach
Jesse Symons. "It will be great to play some different opposition and have to figure things out as a team.
"Saskatchewan is a very organized team that really keeps the ball well. They will be a team we will need to be ready to manage in different parts of the field. We played them two years ago in the Canada West Semifinal and it was a great match all around, so I am expecting a high tempo affair."
The Huskies had a slow start to the season, losing four of their first six games, but have rounded into form since, sitting at 6-1-1 over the last month of play. That recent run of form includes wins over Mount Royal and MacEwan, as well as a draw against Calgary, the three teams that finished ahead of them in the division standings.
The T-Birds and Huskies are not very familiar with each other, with that 2023 Canada West playoff matchup the only time they've faced off in the last six years. The Thunderbirds prevailed 3-1 at home on that occasion.
Saskatchewan's goal-scorer on that day, forward Cheyenne Lehmann, is still on the Huskies and is tied for the team-lead in goals this year with four – along with her younger sister Danielle and standout rookie Isabelle Lachance. Lachance also sits tied for fourth in the conference in assists with five, alongside three other players including UBC's
Jayda Thompson.
Ava Alexander and
Sienna Gibson lead the T-Birds in goals with eight each, just one back of the conference lead. They both scored a brace in one of the final two regular season games against Victoria last weekend, and Gibson has either a goal or an assist in seven of the last nine games.
On the other side of the pitch,
Dakota Beckett earned the Canada West Player of the Week award after earning her seventh and eighth clean sheet against the Vikes. In the process she also stamped her name in the record books with the best career goals against average (0.27) and save percentage (.915) of any goalie in the conference's history (since 2006).
Should UBC pull out the win this Saturday, they'll host the Canada West Final Four the following weekend with the semifinals and medal games played on consecutive days.
The T-Birds could be forgiven for feeling a little pressure going into the postseason as the defending champs, with a record-breaking win streak and shutout streak on top of that. But Symons believes his team has the attitude needed to move past any external noise and lock in for each game as they come.
"The players really enjoy playing together and competing. They have a very strong mindset that shows up each day in all aspects of their lives, and with that comes consistency. I'm not worried about our expectations because we will push as hard as we can in the match and hopefully can create in their end and stop them in our end."
They'll aim to do just that at 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, when their postseason begins at Thunderbird Stadium. Click
HERE to get your ticket to watch in person.
