Vancouver, BC -
The UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team got back in the win column Saturday afternoon, defeating the Mount Royal Cougars 2-1 at Father David Bauer Arena. The 'Birds scored two power plays en route to their 13th victory of the season and more importantly, moving into fourth place in the Canada West conference standings.
BOX SCORE
With a quick turn around, both coach's opted to go with their other goaltender for Saturday's affair.
Jordan White (Surrey, BC) was between the pipes for UBC, while Justin Cote got the call for Mount Royal, despite a 40 save performance from Dalyn Flette in a 4-3 win Friday night. Cote made head coach Jean LaForest's decision look pretty smart early on, as he made a number of key saves on
Wyatt Hamilton (Cochrane, AB),
Scott Wasden (West Kelowna, BC),
Jessi Hilton (Sherwood Park, BC), and
Cole Pruden (Winnipeg, MB) shorthanded. His team would reward him later in the first period with a goal. Nathan MacMaster took a great feed from Kevin Knopp for his second goal of the season 8:25 into the opening frame. Mount Royal though would get into penalty trouble. After UBC's fourth line had a strong shift drawing a penalty, the Cougars took another penalty with the 'Birds already on the power play. It took UBC just 12 seconds to make it count on the two man advantage, as Cole WIlson's (White Rock, BC) slapper beat Cote for his 14th goal of the year to tie the game at 1-1. With the goal Wilson extended is goal scoring streak to six games.
"Cole is playing with a lot of confidence right now and he has the type of shot that scares most goaltenders," said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. "Hopefully he can continue this streak well into the playoffs."
Mount Royal continued their parade to the penalty box, giving UBC another 5-on-3 for 42 seconds, but the Cougars were able to kill them both off. 1-1 is how things remained after 20 minutes. UBC outshot Mount Royal 18-10 in the opening frame.
The 'Birds got off to a slow start to begin the second period, but fortunately
Jordan White was up to the task making a number of timely saves. UBC would take their first lead of the game just before the midway point of the period on the power play.
Brad Hoban's (Victoria, BC) wicked wrist shot was too much to handle, giving the Thunderbirds a 2-1 lead. Later in the frame, Jeff Barrett was sent in alone on White, but was taken by
Mike McGurk (Hamilton, ON), resulting in the third penalty shot of the weekend. Just tike the first two on Friday night, the result was the same. Barrett hit the post keeping it a one goal game in favour of the 'Birds through 40 minutes of play.
Looking for an insurance marker in the third period, the 'Birds had a number of chances, but could not beat Cote. The best chance came with nine minutes left in the period as
Scott Wasden's shot was stopped by Cote, but he couldn't find the rebound. UBC scrambled to get a stick on it, but could not shove it into the back of the net. In the other goal,
Jordan White made two big saves late in the game, one off Eric Galbraith and another on Tyler Jewitt to preserve the victory. The Thunderbirds held on to win 2-1.
"After last night's disappointment, I thought our guys did enough this afternoon to get the two points," said Dragicevic. "It doesn't get any easier from here though. We need to get into playoff mode now, if we want to make some noise down the stretch."
Final shots were 35-23 for UBC. White made 22 saves in the victory. UBC went 2-for-6 on the man advantage, while the Cougars finished 0-for-3.
With the win, UBC improves to 13-8-3 on the season and moves into fourth place in the Canada West conference with 29 points with four games remaining in the regular season schedule. However, Calgary can pass them tonight with a win over Alberta.
Prior to the game, former Thunderbirds player and coach Fred Masuch was honoured for his dedication and support towards the UBC hockey alumni association.
The 'Birds are back in action next weekend when they make the trip to Manitoba for a key two game series versus the Bisons. UBC is 2-0 against Manitoba this year. The Bisons currently hold down second place in the conference.
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