Box Score VANCOUVER – Despite playing one of the best games in recent weeks, the UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team left the ice with yet another loss, dropping its second of two games against the Manitoba Bisons by a score of 6-4. The Thunderbirds fought back on two occasions being down but two goals in the second half of the third period gave Manitoba the win on Saturday, November 23 night.
The Bisons got goals from six different players: Jordan DePape, Jesse Paradis, Aaron Lewadniuk, Brendan Rowinski, Luke Cain and Ian Duval.
Neil Manning, Nate Fleming, Luke Lockhart and Greg Fraser tallied for UBC.
The Thunderbirds are currently in the midst of a five-game slump dating back to early November. With the loss, UBC falls to 3-10-1 and have surrendered six goals in three of its past four contests.
UBC controlled the early momentum and managed to get on the board first as Manning wired one from the faceoff circle that beat Bisons' goalie
Joe Caligiuri. The power play goal came four minutes into the game as Fleming and Brad Hoban collected the assists.
The lead lasted a mere 17 seconds as the Bisons' DePape collected his first career CIS goal as the former Red Deer Rebel fired a seeing-eye puck from the left boards fooling UBC's Matt Hewitt.
The Bisons' would add another midway through the first Paradis cut into the slot and wristed one by Hewitt, beating him five-hole, but once again the opposing team erased that lead moments later. This time it was the Thunderbirds with a nice-bounce back attack that saw Fleming pot one in from the side of the net after a friendly bounce caromed off the end boards, which left him with an open cage. Joe Antilla and Cole Wilson added the assists, with the latter collecting his 15th point of the year, good for the team lead.
With the score 2-2 entering the second, Caligiuri made a spectacular toe save which sparked the Bisons' who went the other way and potted the go-ahead goal thanks to leading scorer Lewadniuk, who put away his sixth of the year.
The Bisons would extend that lead to two when Rowinski capitalized on a cross-ice feed from Taylor Dickin making it a 4-2 game for Manitoba.
Well into the third, the Thunderbirds would respond with two unanswered goals from Lockhart and Fraser putting the Thunderbirds back in business.
Again, the tie-game didn't last a minute as Cain fired a wrist shot on net fooling Hewitt, surely one he would like back, which gave the Bisons' the lead with less than half a period remaining. Duval would ice the game with just over three minutes remaining on a 2-on-1 with Lewadniuk, who collected his third point on the night.
The Thunderbirds would pull their goalie with two minutes remaining to no avail, unable to muster any legitimate scoring chances as the clock ran out.
Manitoba finished 0-for-6 on the man-advantage while UBC was 1-for-3. Hewitt finished with 23 saves on the night while the Thunderbirds peppered Caligiuri with 38 shots, turning away 34 of those.
Game stats at: http://www.leaguestat.com/canadawest/men/en/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1610
