After back-to-back losses against the University of Regina Cougars in Saskatchewan this weekend, UBC men’s hockey fall to a 4-8-0 record in the Canada West, sitting second to last in the division just above the Cougars.
On Friday night, the team received a tough 6-1 loss. Just 24 hours later, the team again fell to the Cougars, this time being slighted at 4-3.
Regina’s Isaac Schacher opened up the scoring for the home side in the first period on Saturday night, blasting a shot top shelf from just inside the blue line.
Two minutes later, in the seventh minute, Regina forward J.J. Coleshaw doubled the Cougars lead. With his team moving in on UBC’s defence, Coleshaw got on the end of a cross-ice pass and pulled the puck back across the net, slipping it past UBC goalie Matt Hewitt.
The T-Birds tried to gain some momentum late in the first, but their first real push forward was called offside. Frustrated by the play, UBC forward Austin Vetterl earned a penalty for an elbow on a Regina defender. He made it back-to-back penalties seconds after he stepped back on the ice, but UBC’s defence came up big and killed-off both penalties, taking the teams to first intermission with Regina leading 2-0.
Even with the revival of UBC’s game late in the first, Regina notched the next goal of the game in the sixth minute of the second. Deep in UBC’s end, forward Cody Fowlie sent a back pass to linemate Gray Marr, who tipped the puck into the ’Birds net.
UBC would finally get on the board just seconds after Regina’s third goal, as Joe Carvalho rocketed a shot past Cougars goalie Andy Desautels.
In the third, the ’Birds narrowed the gap to just one goal in the seventh minute of the period. With a slap-shot from the blue line by Joe Antilla, the Thunderbirds seemed to find their second wind with much of the period left to play.
Regina took the wind out of their sails though, as forward Tristan Frei tipped the puck past Hewitt off a face-off in the 10th minute. The goal would put him at three goals overall against the ’Birds for the weekend.
Again, the Thunderbirds would close the lead to one goal with three minutes to play as Manraj Hayer put the puck through Desautels’ legs off a slap-shot by Jerret Smith.
For the final two minutes, the ’Birds pulled Hewitt to launch an outright attack on the Cougars. But with little movement out of their own end, UBC couldn’t find the game saving goal and found themselves with their second loss of the weekend at the final buzzer.
After a tough road trip to Saskatchewan, the Thunderbirds will head back home to face the Mount Royal Cougars at Doug Mitchell Arena on November 25 and 26.