The UBC men’s hockey team defeated the Trinity Western University Spartans 3–1 in front of a Winter Classic crowd at Doug Mitchell Sports Centre on Friday night.
Both teams started the match playing aggressively from the get-go, with the puck staying almost entirely in the Spartans’ zone for the first half of the first period. The ‘Birds particularly had an inspired game-play, thanks to the energy of the sold-out arena.
The Thunderbirds had a few chances to score, but Spartans goalie Raphael Audet didn’t let himself get intimidated by the rowdy crowd, making incredible saves.
The scoreboard was finally lit up in the 17th minute, with forward Ben Kotylak scoring his first goal of the season after a pass from James Form bounced off a Spartans’ stick and into the air. Kotylak then gloved the puck down to his stick and sent it to the back of Trinity Western’s net.
Despite a great disparity in number of shots on goal (22–5 for UBC), forward Jonathan Krahn managed to slip past the T-Birds defence to tie the score in the second period, after a pass from forward Luke Spadafora.
The third period saw the Thunderbirds score again in the fifth minute with defenceman Conner McDonald taking the lead after receiving a rebound from forward Carson Latimer, who had been blocked after a wraparound scoring attempt.
The Spartans came close to evening the score a few times in the last period, but were always stopped by third-year goalie Cole Schwebius. UBC cemented their victory in the final minute of the match, with forward Jake Wright hitting the empty net.
“Our fourth line got that goal early on, and they were outstanding all game long,” said UBC head coach Sven Butenschon. “And that makes a coach feel great when your fourth line gets on the scoreboard and plays almost the entire game in the offensive zone.”
The Thunderbirds’ next challenge will be an away game against the University of Regina on January 24.
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