Vancouver, BC - Taking on the defending CIS national champions and number one ranked team in the nation, the UBC Thunderbirds women's hockey team gave the Calgary Dinos all they could handle, but came up short, falling 5-2 Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. It is the first regulation loss of the season for UBC.
"We were really impressed with the effort tonight," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "We could have been intimidated by them early on, they were flying around and we were forced to regroup, and then in the end we could have quit, but instead we stuck with it and had our chances to score. When you are playing a team of this caliber you have to be more opportunistic when you get your chances and we were unable to do that."
In a match up between former Canadian national team teammates, 3-time Olympic gold medalist Hayley Wickenheiser and
Danielle Dube (Vancouver, BC), it would be Dube winning the battle early. After just one shot a piece through the first seven minutes, the Dinos went on the power play and fired shot after shot, but Dube was up to the task, stopping eight shots on Calgary's first man advantage of the night. On the second power play of the evening the Dinos would make UBC pay, Iya Gavrilova scored her first goal of the season to put the visitors up 1-0. With less then a minute left in the opening frame, Calgary converted a 2-on-1 as Jenna Smith went bar down on Dube to give the Dinos a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes of action. Calgary outshot UBC 23-10 in the period.
UBC didn't waste anytime in the second period cutting the lead in half,
Kaylee Chanakos (Nanaimo,BC) scored her first of the season 1:49 into the frame to make it 2-1 for the Dinos. Wickenheiser would finally find a way to beat Dube, point blank in the slot she made no mistake to give the Dinos a 3-1 lead. The Thunderbirds had a late power play chance and definitely had their chances.
Stephanie Schaupmeyer (Kelowna, BC) was stopped in close and then
Tatiana Rafter (Winnipeg, MB) thought she scored, but the referee waved it off after losing sight of the puck. A quick whistle that would sting the 'Birds and keep them down 3-1 through 40 minutes.
Chelsea Peterson gave Calgary a 4-1 lead just before the midway point of the third period, but UBC would not quit.
Kaitlin Imai (Coquitlam, BC) scored with just under three minutes remaining to cut the lead ito 4-2 and then
Rebecca Unrau (Humboldt, SK) was sent in alone on a breakaway to make it a one goal game, but Amanda Tapp made a huge save to keep it a two goal game. Calgary would add an empty netter to make it a 5-2 final.
"This was a learning experience and what it proved to us and our team is that we can play with anybody on any given night," said Thomas. "Tomorrow is another day and we need to relish our opportunities, get excited to play the number one team in the country, build off today's positives, and comeback with the same energy and compete level."
Final shots were 45-26 in favour of Calgary. Dube made 40 saves on the night.
Imai and Chanakos each finished with one goal and one assist. Calgary's top line of Wickenheiser, Smith, and Gavrilova combined for three goals and six points.
These two teams will be back in action tomorrow night at 7:00 pm at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
CGY Goal Iya Gavrilova (1) (Jenna Smith, Stephanie Ramsay) 16:48 PP
CGY Goal Jenna Smith (2) (Gavrilova) 19:13
2nd Period
UBC Goal
Kaylee Chanakos (1) (
Emily O'Neill,
Kaitlin Imai) 1:49
CGY Goal Hayley Wickenheiser (1) (Smith, Heather Berzins) 14:40
3rd Period
CGY Goal Chelsea Peterson (1) Calaine Inglis 9:23
UBC Goal
Kaitlin Imai (1) (Chanakos, O'Neill) 17:16
CGY Goal Elana Lovell 19:45 EN
Shots
CGY 45 UBC 26
Dube: 40 saves
Tapp: 24 saves
