Going into the season, the bar was set high for the UBC women's hockey team.
With the second-place finish last season and nine senior players on the team, coaches and players expected a successful season ahead.
As it turns out so far, the team is living up to those expectations.
Last weekend, the ’Birds played a doubleheader against the Manitoba Bisons on home ice and came out on top 3-2 and 6-2 against a team that had not lost a single game going into the match. The two-game sweep of the Bisons also extended the team's winning streak to six games.
With the wins against Manitoba, UBC now holds a 7-1-0 record, and is first place in the Canada West Division — their best performance by far in recent years.
So what exactly is making the team so successful? The answer — the team's been strong on all fronts of the ice.
As fifth-year forward Stephanie Schaupmeyer put it after the 6-2 victory against the Bisons — where she recorded two goals and four points over the weekend — “[the ’Birds'] scoring can come from any lineup and that’s a huge advantage of the team.”
Clearly, the stats do prove that she really did mean what she said.
UBC currently ties Manitoba for the most points for of all CIS teams with 28. While it is still early in the season, a number of the team’s skaters have multi-point weekends under their belts, including Cassandra Vilgrain, Mathea Fischer, Nicole Saxvik and Schaupmeyer herself. Vilgrain currently leads the CIS in total points with 12.
What’s more? The offensive power isn’t just coming from the power forwards — a good number of the scoring plays are also coming from the defence, which is exactly what the team is working toward.
“We’ve been preaching a lot about having our [defence] … being a secondary threat in the offensive zone,” said UBC head coach Graham Thomas.
On the other end of the ice, the ’Birds' defence has also done a lot to keep opposition in check. With the exception of the a 5-3 loss against the Saskatchewan Huskies on October 8, the team hasn’t allowed more than two goals in all its other games.
For goaltending coach Pasco Valana, this is reassuring. Since all three goalkeepers are first-years at UBC, it is a sign that the departure of last year's starters hasn't caused any significant problems.
The season is far from nearing its end, but with the way that the ’Birds are currently playing, few can doubt that the team is destined for yet another successful season.