VANCOUVER – The defending Canada West Champion UBC Thunderbirds are up against the ropes after the Grant MacEwan Griffins earned a 3-2 overtime win to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three quarter-final series Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Loeden Schaufler played the role of hero, redirecting the puck into an open cage on the power play, 5:14 into overtime to give the Griffins their first ever Canada West post-season victory while pushing the T-Birds to the brink.
"Extremely proud, UBC is a fantastic team, they skate extremely well, they compete really hard, they're well-coached," said MacEwan head coach, Zak Dailey, following the gutsy road win. "Our goal is just to come in and make it harder on them and I think our guys did a really good job of that. Sacrificed our bodies, couple guys are injured, we're playing a little bit short; just really happy with the guys' commitment to doing the hard things all night long and we got rewarded for it."
MacEwan goaltender Brett Epp was the story for the visitors, especially early on, as the 'Birds fired 16 shots at the Griffin net in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the visitors by a 30-16 margin through 40 minutes. Despite the disparity in both shots and chances, the Griffins struck first when Caden Cabana picked up a loose puck after a Hunter Donohoe shot rang off the post for his first of two on the night, 11:48 into the first.
The Griffins doubled their lead just 1:49 into the second when Cabana again found the back of the net, this time sneaking the puck through
Cole Schwebius' pads on a wraparound.
UBC finally got one past Brett Epp on their 23
rd shot of the game at 13:09 of the second when
Sasha Mutala released a perfect backhander, top shelf to finish off a beautiful rush play with
Josh Williams.
The 'Birds completed the comeback early in the third when
Conner McDonald's one-timer blast from the blue line rocketed past Epp on UBC's fourth power play of the game.
Epp and Schwebius both made spectacular saves throughout the final period to force overtime where the Griffins found themselves on the man advantage after a UBC boarding call just four minutes in. After the T-Birds kill failed to clear the puck, Schaufler finished off a tic-tac-toe play with Kadyn Chabot and Donohoe as the Griffins flooded the ice in celebration of their historic feat.
"It just wasn't enough," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon, of his veteran squad's effort Friday night. "(MacEwan's) game plan was obviously to just play really defensive minded, a patient game. They've done it all year and they've had success playing that style all year. We saw it when we were there and they've beaten Alberta and they've beaten Calgary, they've beaten all the big teams this year by playing exactly like that. When you fall behind early, that takes a lot of emotional energy and physical energy to chase the game like that in the playoffs."
While now facing elimination from the Canada West playoffs, the T-Birds are in familiar territory. During last year's championship run, UBC dropped game one against both the Golden Bears in the semifinals and Calgary in the final en route to clinching the program's first banner in 53 years.
"In the summertime when we're talking about style of play and how you want to play…who's going to buy in, it's for moments like this," said Butenschon of the task at hand for his squad heading into game two. "It's for losing on a Friday night and having mental toughness to come to the rink tomorrow, focussed and positive and having that winning mindset. The longer this series goes on, it works to our benefit. We did it last year both weekends here, so the track record's there, we've proven we can do it, we just have to do it again."
In order to keep the dream of back-to-back championships alive, the 'Birds will have to channel that energy in game two Saturday. Puck drop at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre is set for 7:00 p.m.
Tickets are available now and the game will also be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
