VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (15-1) completed the weekend and season series sweep over the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies (6-6-2) with a hard earned 1-0 win Saturday afternoon at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
There was no love lost between the two after a spirited Friday night affair that saw more than 140 combined penalty minutes as part of a fierce playoff-like battle.
The narrative for Saturday's rematch was no different with key points on the line for both squads, but it would be UBC that emerged victorious courtesy of the lone goal of the game from
Grace Elliott which brought the fifth-year forward into a tie with former T-Birds Tatiana Rafter and
Chanreet Bassi for the all-time program scoring record with 116 points.
"I think we handled adversity quite well," said UBC assistant coach
Partap Sandhu, who filled in for head coach
Graham Thomas, serving a suspension on behalf of the bench due to post-game on-ice altercations that broke out the night prior. "We did a great job responding as a group and this locker room found a way to close out the game and get the win."
Mya Lucifora got the start between the pipes and held her own early in the first period, sprawling to deny a point-blank opportunity for the Huskies, who were on the hunt to avenge a 4-1 loss less than 24 hours earlier.
Lucifora's save proved crucial as it kept the game scoreless, allowing UBC to get back to the attack and wear down the Huskies defence by cycling the puck. With the T-Birds pressing, Bronwyn Boucher took a slashing penalty that set the stage for a UBC powerplay.
After several opportunities were blocked in front, Elliott took a feed from
Annalise Wong and skated into the slot to snipe her 15th goal of the Canada West season to give the T-Birds a 1-0 lead entering the second.
The tight checking intensity ramped up in the middle frame with UBC looking for insurance and the Huskies hungry for an equalizer.
Clara Juca was stellar for Saskatchewan, making 39 saves to keep the Huskies in the game. The best opportunity of the period for the Huskies came in its closing minutes as a UBC turnover led to Boucher finding herself alone in front, but Lucifora stood tall to keep the T-Birds ahead. Moments later, a scramble led to a ricochet that hit the crossbar before landing in front of the UBC goal.
Despite the frantic end of the second, the T-Birds were unscathed and entered the third clinging to the narrow lead.
"Through our systems, we were able to execute a little better in the second period tonight than we did last night, so I thought we did a good job of not making the same mistakes and raising our game play tonight," Sandhu said.
You could feel the tension in the arena mounting throughout the third period as UBC continued to test Juca, but the second-year netminder stood on her head.
The game's intensity reached its peak with less than 10 seconds to go and Juca on the bench for the extra attacker. McKenna Bolger found herself open at the blueline and the clock close to expiring. Bolger stepped into a wrist shot and fired it past Lucifora, but it was a fraction of a second too late as the horn sounded and time expired to seal UBC's 15th win of the season.
Dodging a near buzzer-beater, Lucifora earned her third shutout of the campaign and Sandhu his first Canada West head coaching win.
The T-Birds are back at it this Friday, December 5th, as they visit the Trinity Western Spartans for the first half of a home-and-home series which concludes Saturday afternoon at UBC.
"The Spartans are a good, strong team and we need to prepare the same way we do every week, regardless of the opponent. We just need to focus on our good habits and address some areas of weakness to be prepared for Friday's game."
