Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

Missed Opportunity

Huskie win streak snapped in Vancouver

Feb 8, 2025 | 8:45 AM

The Huskies men’s hockey team suffered its first loss since late November, dropping a 3-0 decision to the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday night in Vancouver.

It was an uncharacteristically ragged and mistake-prone game for the Dogs, who saw their 11-game win streak snapped by a well-rested Thunderbirds team that was coming off a bye and hungry to avenge their last two home series against Saskatchewan.

“They were chomping at the bit. We had swept them two years in a row here so you know that they were looking at that. I give them more credit than anything,” head coach Brandin Cote said. “We weren’t maybe as prepared for the level of play that we were facing tonight so we’ve got to learn some things, regroup and be better tomorrow.”
The Thunderbirds took the play to the Huskies from the opening faceoff, but could not beat Huskies goaltender Roddy Ross in the first period despite holding an 11-4 edge in shots.

Undaunted, UBC continued to control the action throughout much of the second frame and eventually broke the scoreless deadlock with six minutes remaining as Scott Atkinson finished off a three-on-two rush with his ninth goal of the season. That seemed to light a spark under the Huskies, who had their best stretch in the final five minutes of the period but could not manufacture an equalizer and headed to the room trailing 1-0.

The T-birds gave themselves some breathing room on a power play early in the third period. After a Huskies clearance only reached centre ice, Sasha Mutala quickly brought the puck back into the zone and broke through the defence before wristing a shot over the shoulder of Ross.
Meanwhile the UBC defence made life difficult for the Huskies, who struggled to get to the middle of the ice and generate quality scoring chances. On the rare occasion that they did break through, Thunderbirds netminder Cole Schwebius shut the door.

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Cyle McNabb stretched the lead to three at the 14:24 mark, jamming a rebound past Ross after the goaltender had already made two point blank saves.The Huskies pulled Ross for an extra attacker with 1:45 left but could not solve Schwebius, resulting in their second shutout loss of the season and fifth defeat overall. The final shots on goal were 32-17 in favour of UBC.

Saskatchewan also failed to take advantage of some help from out of town, as the Manitoba Bisons defeated the Alberta Golden Bears 3-2 in overtime on Friday. The Golden Bears now lead the Huskies by one point for first place in the East Division, but Saskatchewan still holds two games in hand. Alberta wraps up its schedule against Manitoba on Saturday.

Despite their stumble, the Huskies still control their own playoff fate and Cote is confident his team will regroup quickly for game two of the weekend set.
“Learning some hard lessons here is going to be a good thing. (It’s a) quick turnaround so we’ll look at some things and our guys will be ready. I think that we’ll see a different team tomorrow on our side but it’s still not going to be easy,” Cote said.

The two teams meet again on Saturday at 3 p.m. PST (5 p.m. in Saskatchewan). The game can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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