VANCOUVER - With a fifth straight victory, the UBC Thunderbirds upset the visiting No. 3 ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies 5-1 Friday night at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
The T-Birds, who are fighting to clinch a home playoff spot, used two goals in the first another two in the second period and an empty net tally in the win.
The 'Birds struck on their first power play of the game to open scoring 9:02 into the first period. Adam Rossignol deflected a Josh Connolly shot from the blue line, Huskies goaltender Jordon Cooke made the save but kicked out the rebound to Nick Buonassisi who scored his fifth of the season.
UBC doubled their lead seven minutes later when Carter Popoff finished off a remarkable solo effort. The second-year forward dug the puck from the right wing boards, cut to the net, toe dragged the puck and fired it short side for his fifth of the season.
The T-Birds only kept the pedal down in the second with Matt Revel and Michael Stenerson trading feeds to each other to stake UBC to a 4-0 lead heading to the third.
Saskatchewan turned the puck over high in UBC's zone four minutes into the period and the two used their speed to put themselves on a 2-on-0 rush, finished off by Revel for his eighth of the season and third in the last two games. The rookie forward then returned the favour winning a puck battle along the boards before feeding it across the slot for Stenerson who scored his tenth with a backhand spin-o-rama.
The Huskies were finally able to get one by Hewitt on the power play with just over six minutes remaining in the third. Rookie defenceman Sam Ruopp hammered home his first Canada West goal from Connor Cox and Alex Forsberg.
With the win, UBC improves to 13-9-1, just one point out of third place. Saskatchewan drops to 18-4-1 and is two points back of the first-place Alberta Golden Bears.
The two teams will meet again Saturday at 2 p.m. PST. The game can be watched on canadawest.tv