LANGLEY, B.C. – Despite outshooting the Spartans 33-16 on the day, it took until the final few minutes for the Thunderbirds to pull ahead for good inside the Langley Events Centre. But pull ahead they did, as they improved to a fantastic 16-1-0 on the season.
Grace Elliott came up with the winning goal once again for the blue and gold, one of two for her on the day as she broke the program's all-time Canada West points record.
That moment had to wait until the second period, as the two sides were scoreless in the first. Spartans' goalie Kate Fawcett made 15 saves in the opening frame, with the Thunderbirds unable to find the breakthrough.
That changed not too long into the second, when Elliott deflected home a
Meadow Carman point shot for the record-breaking goal, putting her (for the moment, at least) at 117 Canada West points in her career and passing
Chanreet Bassi and Tatiana Rafter in the process.
The Spartans did respond with a deflected goal of their own with about four minutes to play in the period, when Sadie Isfeld rifled the puck towards goal through traffic, and it somehow looped way up into the air and over the head of
Elise Hugens in goal.
Charlotte Swanton claimed the final touch, as the home team found themselves right back in the game when they headed to the locker room for the second intermission.
The two teams repeated the same scoring pattern in the third, with the T-Birds striking midway through the period. After some fantastic forechecking by
Annalise Wong and
Vanessa Schaefer, the puck squirted loose to a wide-open
Hanna Perrier, who roofed it on the backhand.
Less than a minute later, however, the Spartans responded. Again, it was a bouncing shot from the point, with Olivia Leier deflecting it home to the delight of the home crowd.
With UBC needing a big play to take the win, Elliott delivered once again. After Leier was given a penalty for hooking with just three minutes to play, the T-Birds went to work on the power play. Playing a give-and-go with Wong along the side boards, Elliott drifted into the middle of the ice, and had all the room she needed to fire home the winning goal on a one-timer.
With just one more game to play before the end of the first semester, Elliott now stands alone at the top of the UBC all-time scoring list with 118 points (68 goals, 50 assists) in 118 Canada West games. She also now has a Canada West-leading 17 goals as well as six assists in 17 games this season.
The Thunderbirds and Spartans will face off in a rematch at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at 3:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday.
