Blake Murphy Sports Writing

The UBC Thunderbirds continued their strong start to the season, narrowly defeating Saskatchewan 5-4 in an overtime thriller Friday night.

The Thunderbirds came flying out of the gate and took an early three-goal lead, playing one of their stronger periods of the season. Kaitlin Imai (Coquitlam, BC) scored the first and third, both shorthanded, sandwiched around a Tatiana Rafter (Winnipeg, MB) power play marker.

UBC would allow the Huskies on the board late in the frame, though, taking a 3-1 lead into the dressing room. Still, head coach Graham Thomas was pleased with the early effort.

“We really had one of our best road periods of the season,” said Thomas.

The second period proved to be the polar opposite of the first, as Saskatchewan built on their late first period tally with another goal just 37 seconds in. Two more power play goals would give them a 4-3 lead, sending UBC reeling into the second intermission.

“They came after us hard in the second,” Thomas explained. “They were all over us. We went from one of our best periods to one of our worst.”

The third period saw the momentum change hands back and forth, with UBC threatening to tie and Saskatchewan threatening to extend their lead. A mid-period power play lead to Christi Capozzi (Kelowna, BC) scoring her first of the season, assisted by Rafter, tying the game at four.

With the rest of the period deciding nothing, the Thunderbirds found themselves in overtime for the third time already this year. When Saskatchewan took a penalty for body checking two minutes into overtime, UBC struck. Capozzi broke in on the half-wall and passed to Imai, who heard Rebecca Unrau (Humboldt, SK) calling for a pass and found her for the game winning goal.

The victory displayed some of the improvements the Thunderbirds have been making this year, building on their successful start and gaining confidence along the way.

“We had a good chat in the room at second intermission,” said Thomas. “The team decided we would win this one as a team and win this character battle. And it sounds cliché, but it was a character win.

“One thing we learned between Lethbridge and here is, in Lethbridge when we got down we tried to do it individually, but tonight it was everybody. We did it as a team.”

UBC was once again backstopped by veteran goaltendder Danielle Dube (Vancouver, BC) who turned away 36 shots.

The goals by Imai and Unrau move them into a multi-player tie for the Canada West lead with five each, while Imai is also in a tie for second in points with 10.

The victory moves UBC to 3-2-2 on the season and pushes them into a tie for third place in the Canada West conference. UBC and Saskatchewan play again tomorrow night at 6 p.m. PDT at Rutherford Rink in Saskatoon.