CALGARY – The UBC Thunderbirds opened the 2019 Canada West field hockey season with a 2-1 victory over a hard-charging University of Calgary Dinos squad Saturday morning at Hawkings Field.

UBC came out firing looking to get on the board early and quiet the crowd on hand. Dinos 'keeper Tayler Guy was up to the task as a couple of heroic saves coming from the UBC attack were turned away to avoid the Dinos going down early.

It wasn't long after that UBC was able to break the deadlock. Sara Goodman split the gap between the Dinos defenders and walked right in on Guy before firing it home to open up the scoring.

The Thunderbirds had a chance to go up 2-0 from a penalty corner early in the second quarter but were denied by a diving save from Guy. The acrobatic stop ignited the Dinos' offence and the crowd as a string of nice passes fell to the stick of Jennifer Wishart who put one into the back of the net to knot the game at one going into the half.

Coming out of the half, play was a little more settled than the frantic pace seen in the first two quarters as the teams kept most of the play in the neutral zone. The Dinos had the first couple of chances of the half but to no avail, keeping it deep in the UBC end for a good push. After the charge from the Dinos was fought off, UBC responded, coming back the other way and squeaking one through to once again take the lead, with Margaret Pham putting home her first of the campaign.

It was much of the same following it up after the goal as the Dinos were forced to successfully defend a couple of Thunderbirds offensive chances.

Despite pushing for the tying goal in the closing minutes of the game, Calgary fell just short of the equalizer and dropped the opening game of the season 2-1.

"We played a really good game," said Dinos head coach Roel Van Maastrigt. "We bounced back after the first goal well, and hopefully it will pay off in tomorrow's game."

The two teams will be right back at it Saturday for the second of the two-game weekend set ready to go for 11 a.m. MT back on Hawkings Field.

SCORING SUMMARY
UBC – Sara Goodman FG, 9', 1-0 UBC
CGY – Jennifer Wishart FG, 24', 1-1
UBC – Margaret Pham FG, 39', 2-1 UBC

GOALKEEPERS
UBC – Hanna Rumble 60 MP, 1 GA
CGY – Tayler Guy 60 MP, 2 GA

-UC-