Jeff Sargeant, UBC Thunderbirds
VANCOUVER – Shay-Lee McConnell picked the perfect moment for her first Canada West goal, scoring the overtime winner to give the UBC Thunderbirds (8-4-1-0) a 3-2 win over the Alberta Pandas (6-2-2-3) Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
It was a wild affair appropriate for a matchup between the top two ranked teams in the country which had more than its fair share of penalties and strange circumstances.
After staking themselves out to a 2-0 lead in the second period, the T-Birds saw the Pandas claw their way back scoring on the power play in the middle frame and then tying the game on an Amy Boucher breakaway in the third that eventually forced overtime.
The T-Birds started the extra frame down 4-on-3 but killed off the remaining 23 seconds of a Brie Bellerive minor penalty. Shortly after getting back to even strength, the 'Birds found themselves on their seventh power play of the game when Alberta's Taylor Kezama was called for elbowing during a battle in the corner.
On that man advantage, Ireland Perrott made a terrific feed from the wall in the Pandas' zone over to McConnell who drove to the net and faked out goaltender Kirsten Chamberlin, pulling the puck to her backhand and shooting it into the open cage.
"It was awesome," said a smiling McConnell after the game. "It was a good pass, and as a team we fought hard and really deserved that win so it felt nice. There were a lot of emotions running through the bench but we bounced back. They pushed back, and we pushed back harder."
It was the T-Birds' third power play goal of the game as UBC finished 3-for-7 on the man advantage while holding the Pandas to one power play goal on six chances.
"That was probably overall our best full game this year," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas who was proud of his team's fight from start to finish against the top team in the country. "It's great we're seeing these baby steps over the last few weeks, we've gone through some adversity and our group's being resilient right now and playing relentless."
The 'Birds opened scoring 12:14 into the first period when Cassandra Vilgrain scored her second of the season, on the power play, from Alexa Ranahan and Perrott.
It appeared as if Alberta had tied the game five minutes later on a power play of their own, but the goal was disallowed thanks to a cross-checking penalty called at the same time as the puck crossed the line.
UBC doubled their lead just 1:29 into the second with their second power play goal of the night. Logan Boyd picked up a rebound in tight for her fifth of the season from Hannah Clayton-Carroll and Emily Costales.
The Pandas finally got on the board six minutes later as Lindsay Weech shot the puck from the point past a screened Tory Micklash for her first of the season. Abby Benning and Boucher picked up the assists.
The aforementioned Boucher then tied the game at two at the 11:19 mark of the third when a T-Birds miscue in their own zone led to the fourth-year forward picking up the puck and putting herself on a breakaway and then scoring her sixth of the season.
"It was a good learning experience for us that we were playing in that tight game," said Thomas. "They pushed back really hard, but our penalty kill was great again, and Tory played well and we had a lot of blocked shots and second efforts that allowed us to get to that moment when we could capitalize."
Micklash stopped 25 shots for her sixth win of the season while Chamberlin suffered her first loss of the campaign making 16 saves.
The 'Birds can make it four straight wins in Saturday afternoon's rematch with the Pandas while Alberta will try to avoid consecutive losses for the first time this season.
Puck drop at Doug Mitchell is 2:00 p.m. PT.
PHOTO: Rich Lam, UBC Thunderbirds