ELMIRA, Ont. – The UBC Thunderbirds' quest for their program's first U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championship will have to wait another year after falling 4-3 in overtime to the Bishop's Gaiters in Friday's national championship quarter-final at the Dan Snyder Memorial Arena Friday afternoon.
Makenzie McCallum put the T-Birds ahead 3-2 at the 5:57 mark of the third, but with the extra attacker and just 32 seconds remaining, the Gaiter's found a way to push the game to overtime when Naomi Cote had the puck deflect off her in the low slot.
The 'Birds had their chances in the ten minute 4-on-4 overtime period, including an
Annalise Wong breakaway that was denied by Gaiters netminder Ericka Gagnon. But the only shot that mattered was a low wrister through traffic from Gabrielle Santerre with 2:30 left on the clock to send Bishop's into the semifinals while relegating the T-Birds to one of two consolation games on Saturday.
It was a rough start for the Canada West runners-up as the Gaiters got on the board just 2:03 into the opening period when Maude Pepin put a rebound past
Elise Hugens.
The T-Birds managed to find their game as the period wore on but the Gaiters still managed to prevent UBC from spending much time in the offensive zone.
Karine Sandilands managed to even things up with a rebound goal of her own with just under three minutes remaining in the period.
Mackenzie Kordic's shot from the slot went just wide of the goal but Sandilands collected the puck off a heavy bounce from the end boards and popped it home.
Santerre's first of two goals in the game put Bishop's back in front eight minutes into the second, on the power play.
Before the period was out, the T-Birds managed to respond once again, tying the game 2-2 at 15:37.
Kasundra Betinol grabbed a loose puck along the boards, cut to the middle and wristed the puck in for her first post-season goal in the blue and gold.
McCallum gave UBC their first lead of the afternoon 5:57 into the third when the fifth-year forward won a puck battle, cut to the slot and shot blocker side past Gagnon.
Trailing with just over two minutes remaining, Bishop's put Gagnon on the bench for the extra attacker and were saved from certain doom when a long range attempt at the empty net sailed just wide.
Still alive, Cote got momentum fully back on the Gaiters' side with the fortunate bounce to force overtime.
The result makes it two consecutive quarter-final losses at the national championship tournament for UBC as the T-Birds will now face the loser of Friday's final first round matchup between the New Brunswick REDS and the OUA Champion Toronto Varsity Blues.
Puck drop for the consolation semifinal is set for 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT on Saturday, March 22 at the Dan Snyder Memorial Arena. The game will be available live on
CBC Sports' YouTube channel.
