EDMONTON - Grace Elliott scored and added an assist to help lead the UBC Thunderbirds to a 3-0 win over the Alberta Pandas Friday evening at Clare Drake Arena.

While the scoreline may not suggest as much, it was truly a dominant performance from the Birds as they controlled large swathes of the game. While the shots were even at 28 apiece, the visitors were able to find much more dangerous spots on the ice. 

Jacquelyn Fleming and Annalise Wong also found the back of the net for UBC, while goalie Elise Hugens recorded her second shutout of the year making 28 saves.

Alberta saw a good performance from netminder Grace Glover, who stopped 25/28 Thunderbirds shots and was incredibly solid after shaking off a few early first period goals. The Pandas take their second loss of the season and move to 5-2-0, still sitting in second place in the East Division. UBC improves to 5-2-0, and currently sit second in the West as well.

The Thunderbirds were quick to strike in the opening period with Fleming scoring her first of the season just a minute into the game. Elliott had the lone helper on the goal, giving her sole possession of the Canada West points lead with eight which would later turn to nine. They certainly weren't finished there as just a couple minutes later Wong fired home her second of the season off a great pass from Kailee Peppler that gave the visitors an early 2-0 advantage. The Pandas would go on a powerplay in the frame, but were largely playing in their own end as an energetic UBC squad consistently challenged to increase the deficit. The Thunderbirds outshot the Pandas 8-6 in the period as they headed into the intermission with a 2-0 lead.

The second period was a lot quieter on the scoresheet, but there was lots of action as there were three separate power plays in the frame, two for Alberta and one for UBC, but no squad was able to capitalize on the advantage. The Thunderbirds outshot the Pandas 11-8, but utterly dominated the ice for near the full 20 minutes. Glover was impressive, stopping all 11 shots and largely kept the Pandas in the game.

Any hope of a Pandas comeback was largely quashed when Elliott deflected a puck past Glover on a 5-on-3 powerplay for her fourth goal of the season, which made it a 3-0 contest. 

The teams return to Clare Drake tomorrow for a matinee series finale with puck drop at 2:00 PM MST.