EDMONTON, Alta. – For the second straight night, the UBC Thunderbirds (23-2-3) scored five unanswered goals, four of them in the third period, to earn a 5-2 victory over the Alberta Golden Bears (10-12-4) at Clare Drake Arena Saturday.
The victory extends UBC's win streak to eight games heading into the Canada West playoffs while setting a new program record with 23 wins on the season along with 49 total points.
Sweeping the six game season series with the Golden Bears is also a badge of honour for a Thunderbirds team that will now have to wait a couple weeks to see who their conference semifinal opponent will be.
"They snapped it around, they played with pace and pushed us back a little bit, we were on our heels," said UBC head coach,
Sven Butenschon, whose squad trailed in the second period once again Saturday. "I think we were a little bit surprised at the pace because we've played them six times now and that was by far the best they've played against us. It was pretty interesting to see the mental toughness of the group. We got a little bit more invested in puck battles and shortened the bench a little bit (in the third)."
Trailing 2-1 through 40 minutes, the Thunderbirds struck twice within 38 seconds early in the final frame to take the lead before adding a pair of empty netters while
Cole Schwebius saved his best for last making 10 of his 22 saves in the final 20 minutes, picking up his 11
th win of the season.
Similar to Friday night's contest, the Bears proved to be a desperate, gritty squad still in a race with their crosstown rival MacEwan Griffins to secure second place in the west division and home ice for the coming quarter-finals.
That determination paid off when Owen Pederson scored twice in less than three minutes to stake out a 2-0 Alberta lead by the 11:33 mark of the first period.
Shortly after UBC's first power play of the game expired,
Reilley Kotai backhanded a rebound in the low slot off Drew Sim's goal stick and in for his 12
th of the season and second of the weekend, cutting Alberta's lead in half.
Early in the third,
Nathan Sullivan got the T-Birds back on even terms with his tenth. Sim was caught way out of his crease as the puck was fed in front by
Ben Kotylak for his first of two helpers on the night.
Just 38 seconds later,
Scott Atkinson converted on an odd-man rush for his 13
th of the season, angling the puck off a
Chris Douglas pass to give the 'Birds their first lead.
The Golden Bears smelled blood in the water midway through the third when they found themselves on a two-man advantage for 23 seconds, but UBC's penalty kill came up big, keeping the lead intact.
"That's what championship teams do, they find different ways to win," Butenschon added. "Having to kill a penalty with a one-goal lead is about as tense as it gets, especially at the Clare Drake in a big game for them. You got three against five, you also got a whole building of fans cheering and getting excited. It was a great execution of the penalty kill."
The Bears put Sim on the bench for the extra attacker with more than two minutes remaining and it took Canada West leading scorer
Sasha Mutala little time at all to hit the empty net from inside his own blue line, his 14
th goal of the season and 46
th point.
Josh Williams put the exclamation point on the incredible final frame for UBC with another empty netter, his 12
th of the campaign.
It's now a 20-day wait for the T-Birds until they open up play in the Canada West semifinals, set to host the best-of-three series starting Friday, February 27 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Depending on the results of next week's final regular season contests which the 'Birds will watch as a result of their scheduled bye week – along with the following week's quarter-final series – UBC will end up facing a formidable opponent, regardless.
Schedule details and ticket information will be available in the coming days on
gothunderbirds.ca.
