VANCOUVER – Ranked No. 1 in the country for the fifth consecutive week, the UBC Thunderbirds now also boast a 10-0-0 record, the first time in program history that they've started a season with 10 straight wins.
Getting that 10th win certainly wasn't easy, as the T-Birds entered the third period of last Saturday's game down 2-1 to the Manitoba Bisons. But as has been the case so many times,
Annalise Wong set up
Grace Elliott for a crucial goal, and the blue and gold prevailed in a shootout.
That goal by Elliott was the 61st in Canada West play for her career, tying the program record. She'll have the opportunity break it (and move into seventh place in the conference's history) with a pair of home games this weekend against the MacEwan Griffins.
The two West Division foes play at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at 7:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday, November 14, and again at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 15.
Elise Hugens also has the potential to make this a record-setting weekend, as the T-Birds' star goalie is just one win away from tying the all-time Canada West career record (64). Hugens and
Mya Lucifora have evenly split the starts so far this year, so the fifth-year stalwart may only have one opportunity this weekend to tie the record (with of course still many more games to go in the season).
The Griffins will be looking to avenge the pair of season-opening defeats that the T-Birds handed them back at the beginning of October. UBC took 1-0 and 3-1 wins in Edmonton that weekend, outshooting MacEwan 56-26 in the two games combined. The T-Birds have a 13-1 record against the Griffins overall since the Albertan side joined Canada West in 2021, and are 8-0 at home against them.
The Griffins are led offensively by Megan Dolynchuk, who scored the lone goal against the T-Birds back in October and has three goals and one assist on the season as a whole. Lindsey Johnson and Taya Currie have split the goalkeeping load evenly in a similar fashion to the Thunderbirds' goalie tandem, with the veteran Johnson holding a slight edge in goals against average (2.03) and save percentage (.935).
UBC as a collective has shone defensively, allowing just eight goals through 10 games. The two that they gave up against the Bisons last time out was just the second time they'd allowed more than one goal so far this year, while scoring multiple times themselves in all but one game (that season-opener against MacEwan).
CLICK HERE for tickets to see the T-Birds in action this weekend, or tune in from home on
CanadaWest.tv.
