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Men's hockey team outworked by Cougars in final road games
Over the weekend, the UBC men’s hockey team travelled to Alberta to take on the Mount Royal University Cougars in their final road games of the season.
The T-Birds dropped both games, losing their hold on first place and falling to fourth in the Canada West standings.
A flat start from UBC on Friday saw the Cougars jump ahead to a three-goal lead in under 13 minutes into the opening period.
The T-Birds’ star goalie Rylan Toth was pulled for the first time this season after allowing 3 goals on 11 shots. Relieving him was rookie goaltender Ethan Anders, a native of Saskatchewan.
Though the T-Birds got on the board before the end of the first period, the team couldn’t carry the momentum into the second frame and quickly found themselves out of the game.
Anders was fantastic in the UBC net, stopping 35 of 38 shots he faced in relief. Liam Kindree got the T-Birds on the board again late in the third, but Mount Royal walked away with a 6-2 victory on home ice instead.
Third-year Cougars forward Nolan Yaremko had a hat-trick in the game, cementing his Canada West lead in goals.
After being outshot 49–25 in Friday’s contest, the T-Birds looked to have more of an offensive impact in Saturday’s rematch.
UBC played a strong opening frame, managing 15 shots on goal and out-chancing their opponents, but still found themselves down by a point down heading into the second period.
T-Birds rookie Tian Rask was thrown out of the game for a high hit late in the first, putting his team on a five-minute penalty kill which carried into the second period.
Though UBC started the kill strong in the middle frame, Yaremko buried the puck past Toth late in the power play, making it a 2–0 game. Mount Royal made the most of the power play momentum and carried it through a dominant period.
Just over halfway through the game, the Cougars held a 5–0 lead and looked to continue embarrassing the visiting T-Birds. UBC pushed back in the third period, nearly pulling off a comeback, but ultimately fell by a final score of 5–3.
Third-year T-Birds forward James Orban scored his first career Canada West goal in the loss.
The tough weekend saw UBC drop their claim on first place. Only Alberta has clinched home-ice advantage for the playoffs, as the final games of the season loom.
The T-Birds will return home this Friday against their cross-town rivals the Trinity Western University Spartans, but their game scheduled for Saturday against the Spartans got postponed to Saturday, February 19.
Men’s basketball suffer their first two losses in Canada West season
The T-Birds were on the road to play against the University of Victoria Vikes for a doubleheader this past weekend, but the T-Birds were not able to maintain their 13-game winning streak of the Canada West season.
The Vikes improved to 9–1, which still puts the T-Birds in first place in the West division of Canada West with 13–2.
On Friday, the Vikes came strong right from the start and got the first on the board, but third-year Guard James Woods responded back right away, putting the score at 2–2 in the first quarter.
However, the Vikes took the lead in the remainder of the first quarter getting to 12–2, which forced a T-Birds timeout. Then the T-Birds took control in the second quarter and outscored the Vikes 19–10, but not enough to take back the lead.
The T-Birds outscored the Vikes for the remainder of the game, but it was not enough to take the lead, and the game ended with a 90–84 loss for UBC.
Saturday’s game was not victorious for the T-Birds as they finished the game with another loss, 96–89.
Despite the outscoring of 35–19 in the last quarter for the T-Birds, it was not enough to take the lead. The Vikes came out again with a lead right from the beginning and the T-Birds gave them a 13 point lead in the first quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the T-Birds came back stronger in defence and kept the Vikes scoreless for about first three minutes. Then Woods cut UBC’s deficit to ten with back-to-back threes. Woods ended the game with a team-high 34 points, while Sukhman Sandhu and Grant Audu collected 18 and 14 respectively.
The T-Birds will be back at home to host the Fraser Valley Cascades on Friday. The T-Birds have won both games against the Cascades in November last year.
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