VANCOUVER – It took a full 60-minute effort and key contributions from their new additions for the UBC Thunderbirds (5-4-1) to hang on for a close 3-2 victory over the visiting UAlberta Golden Bears (4-6-0) on Saturday afternoon at Father Bauer Arena. The resilient T-Birds weathered a late-game Golden Bears push, including a near five-minute penalty kill to end the game, but succeeded in securing their second-straight win over UAlberta.
A line of UBC first-years: Ewan Rennie (1G, 2A), Austin Fraser (1G,1A), and Zeke Nicholson (1A) brought high-pace energy and provided much-needed depth scoring in the winning effort. After the rookie trio's truculent forechecking resulted in a turnover in the first period, Fraser jumped on the loose puck and potted his second of the season past Golden Bear goalie Ethan Lawczynski (23 saves).
"We do a ton of analytics, and after every period I get the reports, and they're just creating a lot, they're generating a lot [and] they're not giving up much, so as a coach, what more do you want?" T-Birds Head Coach Sven Butenschon said of the three freshman standouts.
After notching his first-career USPORTS goal on Friday night, first-year T-Bird Ewan Rennie followed it up with another tally on Saturday afternoon, en route to a three-point night.
"[Rennie's] got an incredible motor and skills in small areas; he doesn't need much time and space to make a play." Coach Butenschon said of the White Rock product, "He did it in junior, and he's starting to do it here."
Fellow rookie T-Bird, Austin Fraser, fed Rennie a pass from behind the Golden Bears net, and Rennie neatly tucked his second goal in as many games past Lawczynski to give UBC the 2-0 lead. It was the lone marker for either team in a tight-checking second period.
The Golden Bears were not ready to concede as they came out firing in the third period. Thunderbirds goalie Nicholas Jones (24 saves) bailed out his teammates, making multiple timely stops on a slew of bad defensive turnovers, but eventually Golden Bear forward Sam Popowich (1G) solved the T-Birds goalie. Popowich's second goal of the season cut the T-Birds' lead to 2-1, and finally ended the weekend scoring drought for the away side at 104 minutes and 19 seconds.
It took just over three minutes for the T-Birds to respond. Keaton Dowhaniuk (1G) sniped his first goal of the season, and first as a Thunderbird, on his team's only power play of the game. Dowhaniuk's goal would re-instate UBC's two-goal lead and prove to be the eventual game-winner.
"I thought [Dowhaniuk] was probably our best player tonight." Coach Butenscheon said of the second-year defender, "[He] was stiff on defence, made the plays when he needed to, and then capitalizing on that power play was just a thing of beauty."
UAlberta first-year Matteo Fabrizi's first goal of the season pulled the Golden Bears within one, cutting the T-Birds' lead to 3-2 in the third period. UBC defender Kayden Sadhra-Kang was called for a five-minute major kneeing penalty, with 4:31 remaining, and it looked like the game was destined for overtime. However, a tenacious penalty kill effort from the Thunderbirds sealed the victory.
The late-game penalty kill capped off a perfect special teams performance by the Thunderbirds this weekend. UBC capitalized on both their power-play opportunities and successfully killed all seven Golden Bears power plays.
It was a much-needed weekend sweep for the Thunderbirds after losing four straight games coming into the weekend series against the Golden Bears. Next on the schedule, the Thunderbirds will travel to Regina to face off against the University of Regina Cougars (4-6-0) next weekend.
