For the second-straight night, the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds women’s hockey team took down the Saskatchewan Huskies in overtime, as they recorded a 1-0 victory in Game 2 to win the best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series on Feb. 15, 2019, at Merlis Belsher Place.
After 83:52 minutes of action, Hannah Clayton-Carroll finally broke through for the visitors as the Vancouver native scored the lone goal of the contest, carrying the Thunderbirds to the series win. Mathea Fischer, who had a goal and two assists in the team’s Game 1 win, tacked on an assist on the marker for her fourth point of the playoffs.
Tory Micklash was tremendous between the pipes once again for UBC, as the netminder stopped all 38 shots she faced to record the victory.
On the opposite end of the ice, Jessica Vance was nearly perfect for the Huskies, as the fourth-year netminder did all she could to give her team a chance for Game 3 on Sunday night. Vance stopped 28 of 29 shots on the night with Clayton-Carrol’s overtime winner being the lone blemish on the otherwise tremendous performance between the pipes for the home side.
Saskatchewan put puck-after puck on Micklash. Brooklyn Haubrich took seven shots and Emily Upgang six as the hosts dominated long stretches of play but just couldn’t get the bounce they needed on the night.
With the win the Thunderbirds will advance to the conference’s semifinal, where they will head back on the road to Edmonton for a best-of-three series against the Alberta Golden Bears.
Meanwhile for Saskatchewan, after finishing the regular season third in the conference, their season comes to an end in heartbreaking fashion.
For eight fifth-years the loss brought an end to their outstanding Huskie careers. Leah Bohlken, Courtney Cormack, Shyan Elias, Brooklyn Haubrich, Rachel Lundberg, Emma Nutter, Elizabeth Salyn and Morgan Willoughby all suited up in the green and white for the final time.
