VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds scored three unanswered goals in the third to defeat the Alberta Pandas 4-2 for a third straight Canada West banner at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Sunday evening.
After taking game one of the Finals series in triple overtime, the 'Birds fell to the Pandas 2-1 on Saturday to force a championship-deciding third game. Sunday's win marks UBC's sixth-ever Canada West title and qualifies the T-Birds for the last remaining U SPORTS National Championship spot in the West.
"This win is really special; it's setting history," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "This group has been so resilient and has had so much character. Honestly, it's a whole staff effort. It's the players, the medical team, the support staff, the equipment managers, the video coaches, the assistant coaches, the alumni, it's everybody who is supporting us and pushing us. There was a lot of pressure and we had to rise to the challenge. We're just so proud of this group."
"This one goes in the history books and so I think that's pretty special," echoed fifth-year captain
Rylind MacKinnon. "It's a great way to cap off my career here and to have a team this great for this long is just a lot of fun."
UBC came out of the gates hungry, pressuring the Pandas with a series of early chances. Five minutes in,
Makenzie McCallum drove the puck into the slot from behind the net. Just when the puck fell out of reach,
Mia Bierd was able to feed it back to McCallum, who fired it over the shoulder of Panda goaltender Halle Oswald to put the 'Birds up 1-0. The hosts held off their opponents for the duration of the frame, earning their first period-ending lead of the Finals series.
The second period saw the 'Birds kill two penalties before conceding their first of the night at the 17:02 minute mark off a Madison Willan wrist shot. Just over two minutes later, the visitors tallied again when Maia Ehmann jammed in an Abby Soyko pass that deflected off Jadynn Morden's skate.
In the opening minutes of the third, the defending champions equalized at 2-2 with a
Sierra LaPlante shot from the point that grazed past three defensemen before nestling into the back of the net.
With renewed energy, UBC pushed the Pandas with 16 shots on goal in the period. The T-Birds reaped the rewards of their effort midway through the final period when
Cassidy Rhodes buried a shot into the top right corner, erupting the crowd in cheers. In the last minute of play,
Annalise Wong bagged an empty netter to put an end to game three of the series.
"This group has been able to come back from so much this year and face so much adversity, so that's only going to prove to help us," added Thomas. "Hats off to Alberta. They battled super hard and it's too bad both of our teams aren't going to represent Canada West (at Nationals)"
The Thunderbirds will soon make their way to Saskatoon for the U SPORTS National Championship tournament which gets underway on Thursday, March 14.
