CALGARY – The UBC Thunderbirds closed out the 2024-25 Canada West regular season with a 4-2 loss to the Calgary Dinos Saturday night at Father David Bauer Arena.

The T-Birds (18-8-2) converted twice on the power play, twice battling back to tie the game, but the host Dinos (16-10-2) took a 3-2 lead late in the second thanks to Dallon Melin while Jake Gricius scored some valuable insurance with a second Calgary man advantage tally as UBC dropped their third straight heading into the post-season.

The Dinos opened scoring on an unfortunate T-Birds bounce just 3:20 into the first, the puck deflecting off a UBC stick and past Cole Schwebius. Noah King was credited with his sixth of the season, on the man advantage.



Just a couple minutes later, Gricius was called for a puck over glass penalty, giving UBC a lengthy 5-on-3 opportunity. Failing to score on eight power play chances Friday night, the 'Birds converted on their first chance Saturday, evening up the game at the 7:15 mark. Sam Huo collected the puck in his own corner and went end-to-end, finishing far side, top shelf for his 11^th, one of his prettiest of the season.

But before the period was out, the Dinos responded to re-take the lead on Conner Gutenburg's fourth as the hosts took a 2-1 lead into the break.

The T-Birds got their second power play goal of the game midway through the second to tie things up 2-2. From the slot, Ty Thorpe dished off to Jake Wright who blasted a one-timer past Carl Stankowski for his team-leading 14^th of the season.

Yet once again, the Dinos answered relatively quickly, this time less than four minutes later at 15:14 when Melin walked out to the slot and fired a hard wrister for his 13^th, retaking the lead for Calgary, this time for good.



Six-and-a-half minutes into the third the Dinos added to their advantage when Gricius scored his 11^th, on the power play, both teams managing multiple goals with the man advantage. UBC finished the game 2-for-5 while the Dinos scored twice on six opportunities.

With more than two-and-a-half minutes left on the clock, the 'Birds sent Schwebius to the bench for the extra attacker still down by a pair, but to no avail.

The game's outcome changes nothing in terms of both teams' respective playoff fates with the Dinos set to open up a Canada West quarter-final series next Friday in Edmonton against the Golden Bears while the T-Birds host MacEwan in a best-of-three starting Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.



UBC has never faced the Griffins in the post-season with MacEwan having advanced to the Canada West playoffs for just the second time in their brief conference history.

The 'Birds will be looking to make it five consecutive trips to the Canada West semifinals with the winner of their quarter-final matchup heading to Saskatoon the following week to face the East Division top seeded Huskies.

Game one between the T-Birds and Griffins is set for 7:00 p.m. Friday, February 21 with game two scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Saturday. Game three, if necessary, will go Sunday, February 23, also at 7:00 p.m. Tickets for the first two games are on sale now!