(Image Credit: Jacob Mallari/UBC Thunderbirds)

By Ryan Flaherty

save of the season

Maier heroics preserve Huskies game one win over Thunderbirds

Feb 28, 2026 | 2:29 AM

It took a team effort but there was no question who the first star was on Friday night in Vancouver as Nolan Maier made 31 saves including a show-stopper in the final minute as the Huskies men’s hockey team defeated the UBC Thunderbirds 3-2 in game one of their best-of-three Canada West semifinal.

After seeing a three-goal lead shrink to one in the final ten minutes of the third period, the Dogs were trying to fend off one final push from the T-birds when Maier came through with his biggest stop as a Huskie. With UBC playing six-on-five, Ty Thorpe fired a shot from the bottom of the left circle and Maier kicked out his left pad to stop it, however the rebound went right across to Alex Serraglio who appeared to have a wide open cage only for the Huskies netminder to leap to his left and snare the puck with his glove, leaving the entire arena in disbelief.

The Huskies then held on for the final 42 seconds to claim the series opener.

“My favourite thing about it is that something was on the line for it. I need to make it no matter what. I was able to make the first save and I didn’t love where the rebound went but stretching out, I was lucky enough to come up with the save so that was pretty exciting,” Maier said.

The Yorkton, Sask., product has been solid in the crease since joining the Huskies at the semester break, but he’s taken his game to a whole new level in the postseason, where he now sports a 3-0 record with a 1.26 goals against average and a .957 save percentage.

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“When you feel trusted, you can just play so much looser and just go through your own thing. You’re not thinking of what people might be thinking of you on the bench or however that plays out, so it’s a very awesome situation to be in and I’m lucky for it,” Maier said.

Head coach Brandin Cote had high praise for his netminder.

“He was steady early and when they did get some chances, he just batted it away and was patient and poised back there and then when you really need one to keep it in our favour, that’s an all-time save right there,” he said.

“That one, we may look back to later on down the road as a pretty big save in Huskie history.”

Maier’s heroics would not have been possible without a strong effort by the rest of the Huskies. led by Can West All-Rookie team selection Conner Roulette, who kept his hot start to the playoffs going with a pair of goals. Ethan Regnier also scored and the Dogs collectively executed a scheme that stymied the T-birds’ high-powered attack for most of the night.

“They weren’t able to use their speed as much in the first part of the game and that’s kind of what our game plan was. With a team like this you just have to be on top of them and you’ve got to give them as little room as possible,” Cote said.

“We just had to be patient and you know we’ve done that on the road for the most part all year.”

Facing a UBC team that hadn’t played a game in nearly three weeks, the Huskies were hoping to jump on their hosts early but the first period was largely uneventful, with the Thunderbirds holding an 8-7 edge in shots.

USask eventually broke through midway through the second on its third power play of the night. After Landon Kosior fired a point shot over the net, the puck bounced to the side of the goal where Roulette pounced, tucking it inside the post before Thunderbirds netminder Brett Mirwald could get over to stop it.

The conference’s regular season rookie scoring leader struck again early in the third, putting a rebound past Mirwald after Chantz Petruic was denied on a two-on-one rush.

A few minutes later, Regnier tallied what would turn out to be the winning goal, taking a stretch pass from Ben Saunderson and firing a wrister from the left wing that squeaked between the arm and body of the UBC goaltender.

Chris Douglas finally got the Thunderbirds on the board less than two minutes later after, deftly maneuvering through the Dogs’ defence and flipping the puck over Maier’s right shoulder. UBC then pulled within a goal with under four minutes left and Mirwald on the bench as Scott Atkinson crashed the crease and had a puck bounce off his body. Though Atkinson appeared to bump Maier as he went to the front of the net, the goal stood after a brief discussion between the officials.

But that’s as close as the Thunderbirds would get, thanks in large part to Maier’s emphatic denial in the waning moments.

The Huskies will now look to sweep the series in game two on Saturday, with the opening faceoff set for 7 p.m. PST / 9 p.m. CST. The game can be heard live on the free HuskieFAN app.

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