‘Birds close out 2025 with dominant win over Spartans to clinch season series

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (15-1-2) keep their red hot start to the Canada West season rolling into the December break, dismantling the Trinity Western Spartans (3-14-1) 6-1 Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.

Kayden Sadhra-Kang racked up a career-high four points on the night while his defence partner, Jake Lee, had a pair of goals and a helper, leading the way for the No. 1 ranked T-Birds who clinched the season series over their cross-town rivals with their 15^th win in 18 games.

After becoming the first team in the conference to clinch a playoff berth with Thursday night's win in Langley, the T-Birds victory Friday guaranteed they'll head into 2026 atop the Canada West standings with 32 points, two ahead of idle Calgary.



"I really liked our game, that's back-to-back games where we were just like a machine with all four lines," said UBC head coach, Sven Butenschon, following his team's seventh straight home ice win. "You can never question (Trinity's) work ethic, getting in shot lanes and their goalie always stands on his head which kind of forces us to never let up. You want to keep pushing, not get sloppy, don't get soft out there. You don't want bad habits to creep into your game because sometimes they're hard to get out of your game."

During yet another opening period of dominating both possession and chances, the T-Birds scored twice within 35 seconds to stun the Spartans who were unable to break the ice on an extended power play after Wolfgang Govedaris was called for a high sticking double minor.

Scott Atkinson deflected a Govedaris shot for his eighth of the season and second in as many games at the 12:28 mark, the fifth-year forward managing to find the scoresheet for the 14^th time in the last 15 games.
 

After regaining the zone following the ensuing faceoff, Cyle McNabb fed the puck to Jake Lee who ripped a wrister bar-down from the top of the right circle for the defenceman's eighth of the year.

The Spartans cut the lead in half early in the second period when James Swan pounced on a rebound for his third of the season.

Any potential Trinity rally was halted quickly thereafter when the T-Birds once again struck twice within a short span. Ty Thorpe restored the two-goal lead with a rebound chance of his own for his seventh while Reilley Kotai deflected a Lee shot just 85 seconds later at the 7:54 mark.

Lee's second of the game and third point of the night expanded UBC's lead to 5-1 late in the frame as his long-range shot found its way through traffic and over Audet's left shoulder.



After a four goal second, the only puck in the final period to find its way into the net was perhaps the prettiest goal of the night when Sadhra-Kang blew past a Spartans defender, cut towards the net and sniped far side, up high with a wicked wrister for his third of the season.

"Sure they had seven points, but playing against them when they play in their own zone they get in lanes, they have long reach, they block shots, they're strong," Butenschon said in praise of Lee and Sadhra-Kang's dynamic performances. "They're professional defencemen there. In the offensive zone they're smart, they're creative, they read off of our forwards very well and Leezer had some great shots from the point, he could have had a few more tonight."

The Spartans surrendered a total of 109 UBC shots on goal over the home-and-home series with Audet making 44 saves in the losing cause.

Cole Schwebius collected his eighth win of the season for the 'Birds with a 17-save performance.



After extending their program record point streak to 17 games, the T-Birds will now have to wait a full month before conference play resumes in January.

"The focus, and I'm telling you, on Monday at practice they're going to be focussed. They showed me that all season and we're going to need them in the second half because the schedule's going to be kind of tough. It's a long time to get away, so we got to make sure that we come back with the same mindset. Maybe you don't eat as much turkey or you get on the ice a little bit more than you normally would. We've done such a good job setting ourselves up for the second half, it'd be a shame if we got away from that. We'll talk about it and I'm not worried about it, we got great leadership in there and I can't wait for the second half."

The 'Birds will start 2026 at home with a tough weekend set against the Mount Royal Cougars January 9 and 10, the beginning of a sprint toward the Canada West playoffs and the team's ultimate goal of getting back to the University Cup and taking a run at the program's first national title.