VANCOUVER – The unbeaten UBC Thunderbirds (9-0-2) saw off the Calgary Dinos (7-3-1) 2-0 at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday evening as the two Canada West divisional leaders met in a tight encounter that had a playoff feel to it.
It took a couple of late goals from UBC to finally break the deadlock after a scoreless first half, with
Oliver Herbert's corner finding its way into the net in the 72nd minute before
Max Comsia added the insurance marker six minutes from time to secure the Thunderbirds' ninth win of the season.
"I'm a lot happier with the performance tonight," UBC head coach
Mike Mosher said after the match. "There's not as many scoring chances perhaps, but that's the games you're going to see down the line. We need to take the chances that we get.
"I said at half time we're wearing them down, we've got so much ball, they're expending a lot of energy running, defending, and eventually we'll get some top-quality chances. But we need to take care of business on the defensive side, so I'm really happy to have the clean sheet tonight after yesterday and some of the other games. More of a complete performance today."
UBC controlled much of the first-half play, but Calgary was looking very dangerous on the counter and getting numbers forward quickly.
The Thunderbirds had their first look on goal just three minutes in when
Nicolas Nadeau played a low free kick in towards goal, and Dinos keeper Oliver Allen turned it away just before
Luke Norman could get onto it.
Chances for both sides were at a premium during the first half, with Calgary's best one coming in the 17th minute when
Jack Garner saved an Efe Udolu-Joshua shot.
Henri Godbout should have fired UBC ahead with 10 minutes of the first half remaining, but he blasted over from 12 yards out after a nice layoff from Comsia to set up the chance.
A low
Lucas Dasovic drive and a spinning
Markus Rukavina shot saw UBC come close in the opening minutes of the second half.
Both sides were evenly matched, but the deadlock was finally broken with 18 minutes remaining when a dangerous curling corner from Herbert took a touch off a Dino's player on the way through to the net, and the Thunderbirds had the lead.
That lead was doubled by UBC after an offensive explosion with six minutes remaining that ended with
Theo Afework unselfishly laying the ball off to Comsia to tuck away his seventh of the season.
Allen prevented from adding a third late on, keeping out
Eric Lajeunesse and Afework headers with two excellent diving saves.
UBC are on their travels next weekend with a gruelling two-game trip that sees them head to Kamloops on Friday evening to face the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack, before travelling to Vancouver Island two days later to take on the UVic Vikes. The Calgary Dinos now enter a bye week ahead of their final three matches of the Canada West regular season.
