Even coming off a brutal, last-second Game 1 loss against Saskatchewan on Friday — there was a confident calm emanating throughout Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. After all, the season couldn’t end like this, at least not in only two games.
UBC was coming off one of, if not the best regular seasons in their program’s history — winning 23 games, the most the T-Birds have ever had, the most in the country. They had a destiny beyond the Canada West semifinals. Their future was bright — it couldn’t end like this. It couldn’t end like this, not for a core group of graduating seniors — Chris Douglas, Scott Atkinson, Sasha Mutala, Jake Lee, Jonny Lambos — their entire top line and D-pair. This couldn’t be it for the core that brought UBC its first Canada West title in 53 years in 2024. This couldn’t be it for the team that was poised to make noise at nationals, with a chance to win the whole thing for the first time ever. Going into Saturday, it was clear. UBC was not going to lose this game. They just couldn’t. It would be unthinkable.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
After a 1–0 lead two minutes into the game seemed to signal the inevitability of a winner-take-all Game 3, the T-Birds collapsed, turning in some of their worst hockey of the year in the most critical moment. The Saskatchewan Huskies ended up on top in Game 2, taking it 4–1, advancing to the Canada West final with a sweep of the first-ranked T-Birds.
21 days before this game, Men’s Hockey would pick up a 5–2 win in Alberta, their last of the regular season, their last before what would surely be a lengthy playoff run. Little did they know at the time, that would be their last win of the year, their last chance to celebrate together as a team before the uncaring claws of eligibility restrictions would tear this group apart, fibre by fibre. A full season of success after success, boundless potential. They wouldn’t even have a single post-season victory to show for it all.
Heading down into the tunnel after the game, all the classic idioms applied. You could hear a pin drop. You could cut the tension with a knife. The air was heavy. But perhaps more striking than anything was the look on head coach Sven Butenschon’s face as he stepped up for his post-game media availability. Eyes glossed over, you could tell that he was thinking the same thing everyone else in that locker room was thinking. That was their chance. And they missed it.
“Yeah, [I’m] definitely in shock right now,” he said.
It was a game with everything on the line for the T-Birds, mostly because of the spot they had put themselves in on Friday night. In their first playoff game, the ‘Birds were caught flat-footed. A tentative, uneven game turned into a 3–0 Saskatchewan lead, which then almost turned into a miraculous UBC comeback, had it not been for a stellar Nolan Maier glove save in the final minute of regulation. The T-Birds would start the series down one, but that’s what the best-of-three is for — they took their mulligan.
Heading into this series, there was a sense that the first one would be the most difficult. Thanks to a strange scheduling quirk and the bye they earned as the No. 1 seed, the T-Birds were given nearly three weeks of rest before their first playoff game, having both the final week of the regular season and the first week of playoffs off. Rest before the playoffs is usually beneficial — a reward given to the best teams for a hard-fought season. But too much rest can be a bad thing. It was on Friday, where UBC took nearly 50 minutes to find their game again after being off the ice for so long. They didn’t find it soon enough.
“It was going to be hard, having three weeks between games,” said Butenschon. “To a man, I don't think anybody in that room was playing close to their [best], to the way they played before the break.”
The hope was, then, for UBC, that once they got that out of their system, they would shake off the rust and turn into the dominant possession machine that ripped through the CW West this year. Soon after puck drop on Saturday, that looked to be the case.
The T-Birds came out in Game 2 like they were shot out of a cannon. Right off the opening faceoff, they immediately started pressing, with an extended, multi-shift trip into the Saskatchewan offensive zone, peppering Maier with shot after shot. After a Friday game where they didn’t find their footing on offence until late in the third, it was a welcome change of pace, and seemed to indicate what everyone in the building thought would happen. Now that they had a game under their belts, the real T-Birds would show up.
This was exactly how the T-Birds liked to play — and was the formula that Butenschon had outlined for the team after Friday’s game.
“[We have to] wear their defencemen down a little bit more,” he said. “ Try to spend more time in the [offensive] zone. When we're playing well, we live down there.”
In the opening minutes, the puck rarely, if ever, crossed the Saskatchewan blueline. The Huskies are a disciplined, fundamentally sound team — but even the best teams lose their positioning if they’re hemmed in their zone long enough. After two full minutes of constant pressure, UBC finally broke through. With Lee travelling deep into the zone, taking the puck behind the net, he found an open passing lane, having drawn four of the five Saskatchewan defenders deep into the zone, close to their own goalline. Lee wired a pass through two defenders to a wide-open Nathan Sullivan in the slot. He left no doubt.
After Sullivan wired a shot over the shoulder of an unsuspecting Maier, the catharsis among the T-Birds on the ice was palpable. Sullivan pumped his arms and slammed into the board as his teammates mobbed him. Their slow start from Friday clearly weighed on them. They had got the monkey off their back.
But that was only step one. With the way this team has played all year, their brand of puck possession hockey works because they put the pressure on their opponents, and when they get a goal or two, they just keep pushing. By the time they start to let up in the third, they’re usually up by multiple goals. UBC knew this, and after Sullivan’s goal, they immediately went back for another.
While the intensity that had defined this team off puck drop had settled down slightly, with Saskatchewan getting a few trips into the UBC zone, the ice was still tilted.
Five minutes into the period, the T-Birds embarked on another lengthy trip into Saskatchewan territory, coming within inches of another marker. Multiple times. The first came off a deflection in front of the net, with a shot from the point rolling just by Maier, and nearly on to the stick of Sullivan, who had an empty net in front of him. Only a heads-up play by Saskatchewan defenceman Landon Kosior prevented the goal, swatting the puck out of harm’s way before Sullivan could get a whack at it. But while Kosior cleared it out of danger, his shot was more to get the puck out of the crease — not necessarily looking to pass to a teammate and break out of the zone.
The poorly-aimed clear went right onto the stick of UBC’s Kayden Sadhra-Kang, who rifled it right back on net from the slot. This shot was stopped, but it left Maier down and out on the ground, with the rebound loose as a goalmouth scramble started to form. With Maier fully horizontal, unable to make any sort of play on the puck, UBC had a chance. The puck hopped towards the stick of Sadhra-Kang again, but before he could jam it in the open cage, it was deflected by the multiple Saskatchewan defenders crashing in on him. Even then, with Maier still out of position, the ‘Birds got one more chance, with the puck hopping into the feet of Reilley Kotai in front of the net. He couldn’t get any contact with it before three Huskies converged on him to knock it loose.
By some miracle, the score remained 1–0.
Unfazed, the T-Birds kept pressing. Through the opening half or so of the period, they held the Huskies to very few shots. Their chances kept coming. After another rebound that Maier couldn’t control, the puck again went loose in the crease, with T-Bird Ty Thorpe nearby to try and jam it home. But the puck went to his off-hand, leaving Thorpe to try and reposition himself for a backhand — but it was too late, Saskatchewan cleared again. Getting almost immediately back in the zone, however, UBC tried for another chance. This time, Lee was tripped up going into the zone. After an opening seven minutes of dominance, the ‘Birds were going on the power play.
But then, what followed was one of the more uninspiring man advantage outings the group had played all season. They wasted the opening minute of the power play thanks to sloppy zone entries and a couple forced turnovers by the Huskies. When they did finally get set up for the first time, the results were no better. A shot that was blocked in front of the net. A dribbling puck that snuck past both Thunderbirds at the point to clear the zone. Sloppy passing in the neutral zone. Sloppy passing in the offensive zone. Huskies clear, power play over.
This was where the cracks started to show for this T-Birds team. The longer this game went on, the more chances they got without converting, the weight of the moment grew bigger, and the energy that they came out of the tunnel grew dimmer.
“[On] our power play … if you don't score, you at least want to get some momentum off it. I think it almost had the opposite [effect],” said Butenschon. “Our power play couldn't put together a couple of passes, [and] I think it affected our confidence, especially the power play guys.”
While UBC still hemmed in the Huskies for the rest of the period, it wasn’t nearly as convincing or dangerous as it had been earlier. The ‘Birds didn’t have much purpose in the offensive zone — holding possession, but not getting any chances. The Huskies, while they didn’t have the puck much, started to sniff for the equalizer. A chance for a tap-in netfront goal came inches from connecting. A puck popped out to the slot for Huskie forward Carter Stebbings, only for Lee to come in at the last second with an incredible sliding block. The T-Birds went to the break up one, but they had to be frustrated. That was their best period of the playoffs, their best period since the break — and they were only up one? It’s hard to know what happened in that locker room, but it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say the moment was starting to weigh on UBC. They gave it their all, and the Huskies were still a shot away. The foundation was starting to crumble, even at the end of that exceptional period.
Those moments of weakness — the poor power play, the lack of chances in the back half of the frame, the couple Saskatchewan close calls — those were just warnings. Indicators of what was to come. A total, utter breakdown.
“We came out and we gave it all we had, and we probably should have had more than one,” said Butenschon. “They probably went in after the first period, caught their breath, and really just stuck to their system. They waited for us to make a mistake.”
That mistake came very early.
Thirty seconds in, the ‘Birds already looked unstable. An initial rush off the draw saw the Huskies put instant pressure on goalie Brett Mirwald, popping a shot off his shoulder that flew dangerously in the air, only cleared thanks to impressive hand-eye coordination from UBC’s Alex Serraglio, batting it away before it could hit the ice.
Then, they took a penalty. With Mutala in the box for tripping, Saskatchewan had their first chance to press in the game, after being passive for most of the first. They took advantage.
It was an embarrassing defensive miscue for the ‘Birds. After killing the first minute and a half of the penalty, with the puck going loose into the corner, the T-Birds overpursued. Three of the four UBC penalty killers dove in the corner after the puck, leaving the middle of the ice wide open. When the Huskies finally got the puck back out to Chase Bertholet at the point, he made no mistake attacking the ‘Birds where they were vulnerable, firing a precise pass to Raphael Pelletier, who was all alone in front of the net.
There’s no reason for a player to be that wide open in front of your goaltender, even on the penalty kill. But nobody from UBC was even close. The three killers who went into the corner couldn’t get back into position in time. Sadhra-Kang, the only defender who could have possibly made a play on the puck based on his positioning, wasn’t even on the ice. He had been hit by a shot moments earlier, and was hobbling to the bench. Pelletier deked out a helpless Mirwald, and roofed it over his blocker, popping his water bottle up in the air. The Huskies had tied it.
In hindsight, this was the point in which they lost the game. After a dream first period, three minutes into the second, it was all for nought. The wind had been completely taken out of UBC’s sails. The T-Birds started the game gunning to rise to the moment, to keep their season alive. Now, tied in the second, the moment crushed them. The pressure to keep this run alive started to become too much.
In the second, each time it seemed like UBC had hit rock bottom, they just kept digging. Barely a minute after giving up the Pelletier goal, the ‘Birds made another unforced error, playing the puck near the bench in the middle of a change. While Liam Kindree attempted to hop the boards at the last second, it was for nought. Too many men. Saskatchewan had just gone ahead on a power play, and now they had the man advantage again.
Yet, it wasn’t the Saskatchewan power play that ultimately kneecapped the T-Birds. It was their own power play. Fighting through a couple close calls, UBC managed to keep it even through the two minute infraction, thanks, again, to a clutch block by Lee to end the penalty kill. When Saskatchewan was called for a penalty a couple minutes later, it should have been an opportunity to retake the lead, get back some momentum, and set themselves up to finish strong in the third.
Instead, what followed was an even more pitiful showing on the power play than their first attempt. They had trouble getting the puck through the neutral zone, let alone the offensive zone. Eventually, they resorted to playing the dump-and-chase, which, because of how easy it then becomes for Saskatchewan to then send the puck 200 feet in the other direction with icing suspended for the penalty kill, is a bad idea.
But their worst moment came at the end of the power play. After generating no dangerous scoring chances, they turned the puck over in the offensive zone at the least opportune time — right as Saskatchewan’s Cole Jordan was being released from the penalty box. The Huskies’ Dawson Holt took advantage, getting the puck off a breakout pass from deep in his zone and immediately booking it up ice to meet his teammate.
With the T-Birds all deep in the offensive zone, they had left themselves vulnerable to an odd-man rush. It was how Saskatchewan scored two of their goals in Game 1. It was the one thing UBC couldn’t allow. Yet, here we were, Holt and Jordan racing down the ice, with Mutala — notably, not a defenceman — the only player between them and Mirwald. Scoring was an inevitability. Holt passed to Jordan, who passed back to Holt, who had a completely empty net, with both Mirwald and Mutala way out of position. Less than ten minutes into the period, not only had Saskatchewan erased UBC’s lead, they had taken it for themselves.
“They were going to burn us on the transition. It happened last night,” said Butenschon. “It's all our video sessions and all our practices. It's all we talked about, because it's not like they wear you down.”
Yet, they still let it happen throughout this series, multiple times. Odd-man rushes accounted for three of Saskatchewan’s seven goals in both games combined. It was clearly a focus for the coaching staff. But even as UBC knew what was coming, they still got burned. Even after the second Saskatchewan goal, the ‘Birds gave up two more odd-man rushes in the next five minutes.
It was emblematic of why this series went poorly for UBC, despite looking like the better team for the majority of the series. Saskatchewan is both defensively sound and opportunistic — a deadly pairing. They don’t make the kind of mistakes UBC did, they don’t leave players alone in front of the net on the power play, they don’t give up odd man rushes or breakaways. Their offensive output may leave something to be desired, with the ice often looking tilted towards their defensive zone, but they lock teams down. Then, whenever they get a chance going the other way, they put it in the net, without fail.
There’s a reason this strategy works in the playoffs. The post-season requires teams to be on their game, within their system, 100 per cent of the time. Even if your system, your talent, is better, if you’re not sound on the fundamentals, if you’re not at 100 per cent, you’ll lose. UBC was at about 98 per cent. That two per cent, those small, momentary mistakes? Saskatchewan took those, and killed them with it.
“If you look at any metric, even against Alberta last weekend, they were on the wrong side of every metric, except the scoreboard,” said Butenschon. “They strike when they can, they're opportunistic, they capitalize.”
The other side of that is that, when Saskatchewan does have the lead, when they don’t need to worry about scoring, they get even harder to score against. Their strength is in the defensive end. They’re more than happy to play the game in their own end — but their opponents will not be able to score. With that 2–1 lead, the Huskies locked the T-Birds down on defence. The remaining 10 minutes of the period drained out with very little action — a troubling sign for the ‘Birds, who would now have only 20 minutes left to try and pull even.
That task would get even harder immediately, as UBC took two completely unnecessary penalties in the opening ten minutes of the period. By sending a T-Bird to the box at this point in the game, not only would Saskatchewan get a rare chance to extend their lead, they’d also, even in the worst-case scenario for the Huskies, drain four precious minutes off the clock. They did both.
In the first power play, Saskatchewan seemed to be content to just throw pucks at the net from the point, not pressing the issue, even up a man. Then, on the second, Saskatchewan got the dagger. It wasn’t anything fancy. It was just a good shot. Stepping into space from the point, Kosior simply took his time, lined it up, and beat Mirwald clean from distance. It wasn’t deflected. There wasn’t much traffic. Surgical. Precise. Deadly.
As the puck popped out from the back of the net, it fell to the feet of UBC forward Cyle McNabb, one of eight graduating seniors on the roster. In a moment of frustration, McNabb whipped the puck at the boards. With 8:59 left, they all knew. There would be no miracle comeback, like there was in Game 1. Not only was Saskatchewan incredibly tough to beat defensively, but UBC was spent. It was over.
“I had the sense you could have played ten periods tonight [and we still wouldn’t have won],” said Butenschon. “We couldn't get inside. We couldn't generate any good scoring chances. We couldn't even really get a shot on net when we really needed one.”
In that final nine minutes, UBC didn’t get a single quality chance. The Huskies suffocated them, putting the finishing touches on an incredible semifinal upset with an empty-netter in the final minute. As the horn sounded, the T-Birds slowly skated onto the net to partake in the handshake line, going to the crease to silently commiserate with each other.
As the Huskies left the ice, the T-Birds were still out there, standing still, emotionless. Perhaps they didn’t quite know what had just hit them. Perhaps they were processing the enormity of the moment. Perhaps they were just frozen. Or, perhaps, for the eight graduating seniors, they couldn’t bring themselves to leave. Burdened with the knowledge that, as soon as they went down the tunnel, they would never again take the ice as a UBC Thunderbird.
“It was a shame to end it that way, because, if you're going to lose, you at least want to play your best game and put your best foot forward, and if you lose, so be it,” said Butenschon. “But those six periods this weekend were not us. It's unfortunate because there's so many seniors in there that have done such a great job for this program.”
“It’s really heartbreaking for them.”
Even the silver linings that so poorly provide solace after crushing playoff losses couldn’t be applied here. With most teams, no matter how bad the loss, no matter how unexpected, there can be comfort in ‘there’s always next season.’ But here, there isn’t. With all due respect to the many young contributors to this team — with Brett Mirwald, Reilley Kotai, Jace Weir and more all making a difference throughout the season — this team was its seniors.
Every university varsity team has to reckon with graduation year after year, losing key parts of their team piece by piece. But it’s usually a slow death. It’s hard to find a comparison for Men’s Hockey, a team so fundamentally built on the contributions of eight players, all of whom will not be here next year.
Of course, come next October, UBC Men’s Hockey will suit up again. The T-Birds will take the ice against another Canada West foe, they’ll once again have their sights on a Canada West title. But it’ll seem a bit further away. The ice will feel a bit emptier. Maybe they’ll start a little sluggish, skate a little slower, still burdened with the heaviest question of all.
What if?
