UBC ready for playoff nemesis
Thunderbirds host Dinos team that eliminated them last season
It feels so long since the UBC Thunderbirds men’s hockey team beat the Calgary Dinos in the playoffs that real dinosaurs were probably still roaming the Earth.
But this might be the season the T-Birds finally bury their Alberta rivals.
Calgary has won eight straight playoff series against UBC — and nine-of-10 overall — including last year’s two-game sweep. The last win came 47 years ago (1970-71) and that series win was the first of only three times in their history that the Thunderbirds have had home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
One came in 2014-15, when they beat the Manitoba Bisons in three games. The other is this weekend.
“They beat us last year in the playoffs, so I think it might be meant to be, to play Calgary here,” said UBC goalie Matt Hewitt, whose team hosts the Dinos on Friday (7:30 p.m., Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre), with Game 2 on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Game 3, if necessary, Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
The teams have been inexorably intertwined recently. UBC hosted the Dinos for a pair of regular season games in October, and while history shows them listed as 1-0 T-Bird wins, the truth is Calgary manhandled the Thunderbirds, winning 6-1 and 7-0. It was discovered later that the Dinos iced an ineligible player, and they were stripped of their points from three wins — including the two against UBC — and two overtime losses.
Hewitt cited those two “losses” as part of the reason his team went into the Christmas break in a seven-game tailspin. His team was faced with a moment of reckoning when they returned to action in January. Calgary was their first opponent, and they beat the Dinos 3-2 in double OT.
“Going into the winter break … those were some pretty hard times for us. We had no momentum,” said Hewitt, a fifth-year Thunderbird and former Regina Pat. “(Calgary) was
what started our downfall. It kind of put us in a sh---y spot.
“After the break, we were able to hit the reset button and come back with a fresh mentality. We found our team identity. (Gaining the points), we considered that a little bit of an early Christmas present. I think that almost gave us a little bit of a boost of confidence. It put us in a better spot in the standings.
“(Beating Calgary) was a bit of a statement game, because I think they were a little pissed off that we took those points off of them.”
The T-Birds dropped the second half of the weekend doubleheader, but the energy was there. They’ve gone 9-2-1 in January, including wins over No. 1-ranked Alberta and sweeping No. 2 Saskatchewan on the way to a 16-10-2 conference record, with the 34 total points the most UBC has accumulated in 29 years.
The Point Grey team got it done with special teams (the power play is clicking at 23 per cent), defence and goaltending. They’re 30th out of 35 teams in goals-scored (71),
but second-best in goals allowed (61). Hewitt set a career-high with 12 wins and a .920 save percentage, and went 6-1 in January, his 1.80 GAA and .945 save percentage earning him WHL grad-of-themonth honours.
The T-Birds head into the playoffs keenly aware of their historical post-season shortcomings.
“The fact we’ve been playing well in the second half, and I think we’ve showed the league we can beat anyone, it’s a huge statement,” said Hewitt. “But the playoffs are a different animal. You have to be ready to come to the rink and battle.
“I think we still have lots to prove. There haven’t been that many years when we’ve gotten by the first round of the playoffs. I think we have to prove to ourselves that we belong where we are in the standings.”