Crash and bang: T-Birds win opening game of quarterfinal showdown against Dinos in physical fashion

After a triple-overtime UBC win thriller in the women’s game, the men followed it up with a solid 4-1 win over the Calgary Dinos. This was the first game of a possible three-game series featuring UBC as the fourth-seed hosting the fifth-seed Dinos — and it was a physical one with plenty of crashing and banging, as both teams tried to set the pace for the series.

“It sure set the tone … they’re not big hits but they’re hits and they all add up. It helps in stopping their rush and gets their D playing offense and it gets the bench going,” said a pleased UBC head coach Sven Butenschon post-game.

“It’s how you play hockey properly.”

The first period was a relatively even affair until Calgary’s Matt Alfaro put them on the penalty kill in the eighth minute. After UBC’s Matt Revel dragged the puck into the blue paint, it was a scramble to find the loose puck until Revel finished what he started and put the Thunderbirds up 1-0, flicking it over Calgary starting goaltender Jordan Papirny.

Papirny would bounce back shortly after, committing highway robbery with a glove save. UBC starter Matt Hewitt remained perfect by the end of the first with shots at 16-11 in the Thunderbird’s favour.

The start of the second was a little sloppy as turnovers in front of their net put Hewitt in charge of keeping it scoreless.

Up-ice, his team would manage to extend the lead and ease some nerves for the fans. A post-whistle roughing penalty seemed like a dumb penalty to take for T-Bird Kyle Becker midway through the second, until he was sprung for a breakaway while getting out of the penalty box, scoring blocker side for the 2-0 lead — his first goal of the season.

The ’Birds would play much of the period on the back foot and were outshot 15-11 by a Dinos team who were controlling much of the zone time. The second ended on a high for UBC though as an errant shot with six seconds remaining bounced awkwardly off of Papirny’s pad, causing him to fall in reaction to a rebound. While the puck was bouncing, Matt Revel managed to get enough of a shot to score his second and UBC’s third goal with four seconds left on the clock.

Four minutes into the third, Calgary thought they had their first goal as Logan Fisher put his own rebound five-hole through a falling Hewitt — it was quickly waved off by goaltender interference, to the disappointment of a now desperate Dinos team.

Calgary would finally crack Hewitt as Riley Sheen’s power-play shot from the hash marks found its way over the goaltender’s shoulder. Hewitt would still remain calm and cool, his everyday mindset as UBC’s starting goalie.

“When I was younger … sometimes you change when it comes to bigger games, sometimes you think you have to change your mental process, sometimes you think you have to do more. But at the end of the day, it’s just another game. So you have to go out there with the same mindset, battle, compete and being a fifth-year guy, I want to lead by example,” he said.

Any hope of a comeback after Calgary’s first goal was routed by the ’Birds, as Carter Popoff and Adam Rossignol combined for four passes on a 2-on-1 — leaving Papirny so far out his net it was an empty-netter tap-in for Popoff at 13:24.

With UBC now holding the one-game upper hand, both teams will face off for game two at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Doug Mitchell Arena.

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