Blake Murphy Sports Writing

The UBC Thunderbirds let one slip away in Manitoba on Friday night, falling 2-1 to the Bisons.

The loss is a crucial one in a tight Canada West conference where every point matters. With UBC falling to 5-3-3 and Regina, Mount Royal and Lethbridge looking likely to pick up points (all three teams were in tie games late as of this writing), the gap between teams continues to shrink. Just four points now separate third place, which has a home-ice playoff advantage, and seventh place, which misses the playoffs altogether.

The Thunderbirds got strong goaltending from Danielle Dube (Vancouver, BC), who made 23 saves, but couldn’t support her with offense, managing just 12 shots as a team.

UBC actually jumped out to an early lead on a goal by Emily O’Neill (Oakville, ON) but Manitoba answered back with a quick strike from Kyleigh Palmer. Late in the first period, Maggie Litchfield-Medd scored the decisive goal for the Bisons, as no team would score in the second or third.

The third period saw UBC get some chances with a handful of power plays, but the team couldn’t capitalize. An undisciplined misconduct penalty also cost UBC a key player late, slowing down their momentum.

As expected, the Bisons gave the Thunderbirds a hard fought game, showing they are better than their record would indicate.

“Manitoba played desperation hockey,” head coach Graham Thomas explained. “They needed the win and they came out at us really hard. We couldn’t handle their pressure.”

Overall, the coach was disappointed in his squad but eager to get another chance tomorrow.

“We need to work on our preparation and our focus,” said Thomas. “We can’t take nights off in this conference. We have to learn a lot of lessons from this.”

The Thunderbirds will get a second chance in Winnipeg once again Saturday at 5 p.m.