EDMONTON – Less than 24 hours after suffering just their second loss of the season, the UBC Thunderbirds (10-1-1) stormed back with a decisive 6-1 victory over the MacEwan Griffins (6-6-2) Saturday afternoon at Edmonton's Downtown Community Arena.
Scott Atkinson scored twice on the power play,
Cyle McNabb extended his point streak to eight games while
Cole Schwebius was outstanding between the pipes, collecting his fifth win of the season as the T-Birds earned three of four points on the weekend while opening up a six point lead over idle Alberta atop the west division.
"The boys responded really well, never a real doubt in my mind, we've always bounced back after a little adversity or a tough night the night before," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon, following the dominant bounce back. "Every situation we played it like our life was on the line and when you play the game like that you give yourself a real chance."
The 'Birds needed just 23 seconds to convert on their first power play of the game with
Ty Thorpe opening scoring at the 2:49 mark of the first, a heavy wrister going far side past Eric Ward for his fifth of the season.
UBC did the most damage in the second period with four goals total, two coming just 14 seconds apart early in the frame beginning with captain
Chris Douglas' sixth going post-and-in after taking a drop pass from McNabb in the high slot.
Jake Lee gave the 'Birds a 3-0 lead with his seventh at 1:24.
Nathan Sullivan extended the lead further with his seventh of the season, deflecting an
Alex Serraglio shot at the top of the crease.
The barrage concluded with Atkinson's first of two power play goals with a minute-and-a-half remaining in the period. The fifth-year forward collected his fifth of the season off a Lee rebound, the exclamation mark on a most dominant 20 minutes for UBC, the T-Birds outshooting the Griffins 13-2 in the frame.
Schwebius' shutout bid was spoiled 6:25 into the third when Liam Hughes scored on an odd-man rush after a T-Birds turnover up ice.
"Your goalie's got to be your best penalty killer and he made some huge saves early and it gave the guys a lot of confidence," said Butenschon of Schwebius' afternoon. "It was nice to see him play like that because I know he expects a lot out of himself and I thought that was his best performance of the year."
Atkinson restored the five-goal advantage to officially erase any lingering doubt of the game's final result, once again collecting a rebound on the power play in the low slot.
Special teams were once again massively in UBC's favour Saturday, the T-Birds scoring three times on nine opportunities while keeping the Griffins off the board on four MacEwan power plays, including a 1:50 two-man advantage in the first period.
"We like to play 5-on-5 with rhythm and flow but our power play's been real sharp this year. (Assistant Coach)
Conner McDonald's stepped in and done a great job with the penalty kill and it needed to be dialled as we were down on that 5-on-3 early and we got a lot of confidence from that moving forward."
The rebound should serve the T-Birds well with what's a continuation of a very challenging November schedule which sees UBC back home next weekend to host the Alberta Golden Bears, followed by their final road trip of 2025 to face the Saskatchewan Huskies.
"You love to win on the Saturday, it makes the bus ride and the flight and then the next bus ride back to campus way more enjoyable. Getting three points out of four on the road is good. It's a tough schedule, back-to-back road trips…November's a real grind. We got to be ready to keep this going because this is the toughest stretch of the year."
The 'Birds kick off the two-game series with Alberta on Friday, November 21 at 7:00 p.m. at Father Bauer Arena.
Tickets are available online and the game will also be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
