CALGARY – The UBC Thunderbirds (3-3-1) frittered away a two-goal third period lead, falling 4-3 in regulation to the host Mount Royal Cougars (6-1) Friday night in Calgary.
T-Birds captain
Ty Thorpe scored on the power play early in the final frame to go ahead by a pair, but MRU's Ty Gibson scored twice within 63 seconds to tie the game before Ruslan Jamaldinov tallied the game winner with just under three minutes remaining.
The loss makes it three in a row for UBC for the first time since the end of the 2024-25 season while the Cougars have now won four straight to remain atop the East Division.
"We played really hard, we had our legs, we played with a lot of jam, we weren't able to make any great offensive plays throughout the night but that's okay, we got to be able to win tight checking games," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon. "We didn't get many grade 'A' opportunities, but neither did they. We're up 3-1 in the third and you put yourself in a good spot on the road and you should be able to lock that down. Two mistakes resulted in goals and it's kind of what we've seen all year, the team's playing really great for 15 minutes and then we seem to make one poor decision…and the other teams have been able to capitalize and embarrass us."
Fifth-year T-Birds forward
Josh Williams kept up his strong start to the season, opening scoring late in the first period with his fifth of the season, extending his point streak to six games.
Dawson Seitz got the Cougars on the board 10:07 into the second with his fourth of the season, shorthanded, but
Jake Wright restored UBC's lead late in the frame.
Thorpe's fourth of the season put UBC in good stead with a multi-goal lead at 1:13 of the third but the two quick strikes from Gibson quickly changed the feel of the contest.
Jamaldinov completed the comeback as the Cougars scored three unanswered to snatch at least a point away from the T-Birds.
"It's a tough stretch of seven or eight days where we're playing Saskatchewan, a top team, and then Mount Royal, a top team," Butenschon said, viewing a bounce back win Saturday as a possible key turning point for his group. "Sure, you'd like four or five points out of those four games but if you get three out of eight, you move on. I think it's not the end of the world for our group but it'll go a long way and have a real positive vibe moving forward just because we are doing a lot of great things out there.
We are following game plans and strategies and making adjustments throughout but we're just not getting rewarded for it."
The 'Birds can snap their current three-game slide in Saturday's final regular season meeting with the Cougars which gets underway at 4:00 p.m. PCT. The game will be
available live on Canada West TV.
