VANCOUVER – Fresh off a solid road clean sheet victory, the No. 2 ranked UBC Thunderbirds (7-0-2) look to keep their undefeated status for another week as they host a pair of Prairie division rivals this Friday and Saturday, October 2 and 3, at Thunderbird Stadium.
As the only remaining undefeated side in the conference, the T-Birds enter a critical final six games of the regular season with four of those battles against likely playoff bound teams, including Saturday's matchup with the Calgary Dinos (7-2-0).
The two-game home weekend kicks off Friday night at 7:30 when the 'Birds battle the MacEwan Griffins (0-7-1) in their first meeting in more than three full years and their first in Vancouver since September of 2018.
"Certainly, Calgary will be a good matchup but MacEwan is always an interesting one, they've always got some decent pieces, especially in attack, and that's the case again this year," said UBC head coach,
Mike Mosher. "Their record could very well be better, so we're not going to look past them, we'll look to get after them. We got to play a good side in Alberta the other day and it's one of the enjoyable things about Canada West as it is, it's seeing those teams on the other side of the mountains and Calgary's been one of the better teams on that side over the last few years."
It's also been three seasons since the T-Birds and Dinos have played each other, UBC earning a 3-0 quarter-final playoff victory over Calgary in 2023. Both teams are perennial conference final four participants and Saturday's matchup pits the current division leaders against each other although the Dinos have a Friday night meeting with the Fraser Valley Cascades to come first.
"We've put ourselves in a good spot where we want to be, in a good position to secure hopefully top spot early on, but it's fine tuning as we head toward playoffs," said Mosher, his squad leading the conference in goals scored with 26 having allowed just eight against. "It's about maintaining standards, it's not having any complacency. We've had a couple wobbles, some of the goals we conceded weren't great, so building upon that, that we're not conceding preventable goals."
Sunday afternoon in Alberta was an impressive return to clean sheet form for the 'Birds who pitched a 3-0 shutout win over the Golden Bears. Veteran midfielder
Luke Norman set up
Max Comsia's game winner early in the first half before scoring twice himself late in the frame, a performance worthy of his Canada West Player of the Week award.
"As an attacking player, that's certainly what we want to see, him scoring goals and creating goals for others and certainly that day was a highlight for him. Sometimes we focus on where we can be better, but on the positive, we've scored a lot of goals over nine games so far. That parlays into players getting recognized because we've gotten the goals and we've had key players that we want to be involved and seen on the scoresheet that have had significant contributions over those games."
With just the six games remaining in the campaign, the T-Birds hold a comfortable margin atop the Pacific, eight points up on second place Thompson Rivers. A pair of wins this weekend – or at the very least keeping the team's undefeated streak intact – would go a long way to securing not only a Canada West playoff berth but also first place in the division which would allow for home field advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
Kickoff vs the Griffins Friday, October 2 is set for 7:30 p.m. at Thunderbird Stadium with Saturday's battle against the Dinos scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. start.
Tickets for both are available online or at the door with live streaming also available on
Canada West TV.
