The UBC’s women’s hockey team kept Friday night’s Winter Classic crowd on their toes, winning 4–3 in overtime at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena. The visiting Trinity Western Spartans took the lead early, but were no match for third-year Jacquelyn Fleming who scored two goals of the night, including the game winner.
Coming off a 4–1 win against the Spartans on Thursday, the Thunderbirds started looking a little too comfortable; they had poor passes and their skating lacked intensity. Play went back and forth, with both teams putting on lots of offensive pressure.
Both teams earned penalties in the first period, but the Spartans capitalized first — although unconventionally — with four minutes left. On TWU’s first penalty kill of the game, Brooke Dorash managed a short-handed goal that went top down after an unfortunate turnover by UBC’s Mackenzie Kordic.
But just 16 seconds into the second period, fifth-year Kordic pushed it past Spartan goaltender Kate Fawcett on a rebound for a 1–1 score.
“I think it came from them in the room that we need to be better, and we got to push back, and we got to respond,” said UBC head coach Graham Thomas. “So regardless of what happened in the first, we’ve got to come out flying here, and that's kind of exactly what they did.”
Now tied up, both teams played with ferocity, the intensity and speed the Thunderbirds usually play with coming back.
However, TWU took the lead after an ill-timed play by UBC goaltender Elise Hugens. She went to play the puck, but an unfortunate bounce left her net wide open and even a dive couldn’t save it. The goal left the T-Birds once again trailing by one heading into the break.
Similar to the second period though, UBC tied it up early on — this time with a side shot from Fleming that bounced off Fawcett and in. But a Kordic hooking penalty put the ‘Birds on the kill, and the Spartans took the lead once more.
Tensions were high as the clock counted down, and the T-Birds were desperate to even it up. With just over a minute and a half left, it was nationally-leading goal scorer Grace Elliott who kept the ‘Birds in the game.
Overtime was tense as the crowd continued to grow — even the UBC men’s hockey team stopped warmups to watch and cheer on their counterparts with chirps like “Trinity Western has no business winning this game.”
With just thirty seconds left in overtime, Fleming went coast-to-coast, driving to the net with a quick shot that snuck past Fawcett for the 4–3 win.
“We’ve been talking about driving the paint a lot, getting pucks to the net, so I thought I’d shoot it on the net and luckily it went in,” Fleming laughed post-game.
The victory marked eight consecutive wins for the T-Birds, a streak they’ll look to extend when they host the University of Regina Cougars on January 24 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
“I think we’re really proud of the group we have in the room,” said Fleming. “If we keep doing little things right, playing together, I think we’ll have good success down the road.”
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