LANGLEY, B.C. – The U SPORTS No. 1-ranked UBC Thunderbirds shutout the Trinity Western Spartans 4-0 on Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre to earn a weekend sweep. The win improves the first-place Thunderbirds to 22-2-0-0, while the loss drops the Spartans to 11-12-1-0 in Canada West play. UBC has already clinched the Canada West west division regular season title, while the Spartans sit third, two points back of second place Alberta.
Scoring for the Thunderbirds were
Jaylyn Morris with her eighth and ninth of the season,
Ilona Markova with her first as a Thunderbird, and
Hanna Perrier with her fifth of the season.
UBC's
Mya Lucifora made 13 saves to earn the shutout win for the 'Birds, her fifth of the season in just 11 starts. She also drops her goals-against average to a conference-leading 0.91, sliding ahead of teammate
Elise Hugens' mark of 1.00.
The Thunderbirds had a sizable advantage in offensive zone possession in the first, outshooting the Spartans 15-3, but were only able to beat Spartans fifth-year goalie Kate Fawcett one time. Morris got the eventual game winner with her power play goal at 7:39 to give UBC the 1-0 lead after the first 20 minutes.
The Spartans started the second period with a 5-3 power play, but were unable to get the puck past Lucifora. The Thunderbirds would have their own 5-3 power play midway through the period, but the TWU PK was able to keep UBC off the board.
With just over five minutes to go in the frame, the smooth-skating Markova, who only joined the T-Birds in the second semester, scored a beauty of a goal for her first in the blue and gold. The Russian-born winger ripped a wrister from the left hashmark into the top right corner of the net, popping Fawcett's water bottle off of the roof of the cage with the wicked snipe.
That was the lone goal of the period, giving the Thunderbirds a 2-0 lead going into the third.
UBC out-shot TWU 12-2 in the final period and put the game away with a goal from Perrier at 6:13, before Morris scored her second goal of the game on the power play goal at 8:31 to make it a 4-0 final.
The Thunderbirds out-shot the Spartans 40-13 overall on the night. TWU was 0-5 on the power play, while UBC finished 2-7. The T-Birds are now 6-0 against their crosstown rivals this season and 29-2 over the history of the rivalry.
The 'Birds will fly to Edmonton next weekend for their final road series of the year, taking on the MacEwan Griffins in back-to-back games. First up is Friday's tilt starting at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at Downtown Community Arena, followed by a rematch at 2:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday.
Catch all of the action, live or on demand, on
Canada West TV.