VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (21-2-3) have officially clinched first overall in the Canada West and home ice throughout the coming playoffs with a 6-4 victory over the MacEwan Griffins (9-10-5) Saturday at Father Bauer Arena.
In yet another prominent special teams battle,
Scott Atkinson scored the game winner on the power play early in the third period while the T-Birds successfully killed off a late four minute Griffins man advantage to hang on for a sixth straight win.
Josh Williams completed his second four point game of the season with a goal and three assists to give the fourth-year forward a fourth straight multi-point effort while
Sasha Mutala's three points Saturday gave the conference's leading scorer seven points over the weekend.
Cole Schwebius collected his tenth win of the season making 19 saves, none bigger than a massive glove stop off Ethan Sundar midway through the third.
"We limited them, I don't think they had more than five scoring chances five on five," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon, following yet another heavyweight tilt with the Griffins. "Their power play was really good and our PK had some tough bounces, but I really loved it at the end, I thought we did a great job killing the last penalty there and locking it down. It felt like a playoff game, I loved our bench, I loved our vibe, I think it was a great learning game for us going into playoffs."
Hardly a dream start for UBC, before the contest was even a minute old, MacEwan had scored twice, Sundar just 14 seconds in followed by Sam Simard's eighth just 21 seconds into the first power play of the afternoon.
But the T-Birds were able to rally quickly as Mutala's 13
th of the season got UBC on the board at the 1:17 mark, the first three shots of the game combined all finding the back of the net.
T-Birds captain
Chris Douglas tied things up at 7:38, his 15
th of the campaign extending his point streak to eight games.
Caden Cabana was able to restore MacEwan's lead early in the second on the power play, but another UBC response saw Williams one-time a Mutala pass for his 11
th, tying the game 3-3.
Jake Wright's 15
th gave UBC their first lead at the 15:11 mark, but the see-saw battle continued with Dwayne Jean Jr tying things up once again three minutes later on MacEwan's third power play tally of the afternoon.
Atkinson's eventual game winner at 2:58 of the third came off another one-timer blast, his 12
th of the year to match his previous season best total.
The 'Birds weren't able to breathe until
Liam Kindree hit the empty net with just five seconds on the clock, the finishing touch on an impressive final period that saw UBC kill off three MacEwan power plays, including a double minor called with five-and-a-half minutes remaining.
"We knew what was on the line and we weren't going to be denied," Butenschon added, crediting a penalty kill unit that was without a key piece Saturday with
Cyle McNabb sidelined due to injury. "When
Ty Thorpe is going into a situation with his combination of hockey IQ and athleticism, his skill and desire, nothing's going to happen in that situation. I thought Thorpy really dug in there and the whole team did, it was just great to see."
Aside from his stellar play on the kill, Thorpe earned an assist on Wright's second period goal to extend the third-year forward's point streak to nine games.
Now with 45 points on the season, one shy of the program record total, the T-Birds have clinched top spot in the conference for the second time in the last three seasons heading into next week's final pair of games before the playoffs.
"We still plan on playing for a long time. We got a lot of hockey coming up but we wanted to end this chapter the right way. Take care of business, and then it's going to be a whole new season in a few weeks and we'll regroup and be ready for that."
The 'Birds head to Edmonton next weekend to close out the regular season against the Golden Bears Friday and Saturday at Clare Drake Arena before enjoying back-to-back bye weeks ahead of the Canada West semifinals beginning Friday, February 27 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
