This season, the UBC Thunderbirds women’s hockey team might be the most improved team in any sport, male or female, among the 54 schools who share membership in Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

Yet despite its incredible rise from one-win cellar dwellers a season ago to Canada West playoff contenders this season, the unranked ‘Birds were nonetheless lacking a signature win that told everyone else in the country that they capable of competing with the nation’s elite.

On Saturday afternoon, they finally got that win.

Nikola Brown-John and Nicole Saxvik staked UBC to a 2-0 lead after two periods, and the ‘Birds made that lead hold, getting superb goaltending from Danielle Dube to edge No. 2-ranked, defending CIS champion Calgary 2-1 on the Dinos’ home ice at Father David Bauer Arena, giving them a weekend split as action resumed following the Canada West’s one-month holiday break. Calgary (14-3-1) scored into an empty net on Friday to win 4-2 and extend its conference win streak to six games.

“I think today was a big step forward for UBC women’s hockey,” said Dube, who stopped 27 of 28 shots on the day, including six by Dinos’ star Hayley Wickenheiser. “It’s really big because now we can believe. I was talking before the game about how it would be great to be able to knock off a team like this in the playoffs, and now this team knows it can do it.”

The Thunderbirds have made massive strides under the tutelage of first-year head coach Graham Thomas, the former associate coach of the NCAA’s Syracuse Orange.

UBC was 1-21-2 last season, but following Saturday’s victory, this season’s mark has been pushed to 8-7-3, the eight wins equaling the program’s season-high for wins in a season. With the regular season expanded to 28 games for 2012-13, the Thunderbirds are well on their way — with 10 more games remaining — to making this the most successful season in program history.

“The girls worked their hearts out today and it was simply a great team effort,” said Thomas, whose team, for as well as it has played this season, was in desperate need of a victory.

The rash of injuries and illness that swept through the lineup before the break played a large role in UBC dropping three straight prior to Christmas.

“And after last night we were 0-4 over our last four, but I don’t think it was indicative of how we were playing,” continued Thomas who got goals from Rebecca Unrau and Kaitlin Imai in Friday’s loss. “We were still getting better even with the wins not being there, and I thought that was indicative in how hard this team trained over the break. There is a real focus now.”

The win over the Dinos was UBC’s first over Calgary since Oct. 22, 2010, snapping a string of 10 straight losses. The ‘Birds have been building towards the win, especially after dropping a 6-5 overtime decision to the Dinos at the Doug Mitchell Arena on Oct. 13.

UBC, sitting in fourth place in the conference standings, plays its first home games in 2013 this coming weekend, as it plays host to last-place Lethbridge (5-9-3) this Friday and Saturday.

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Head of the Class 2014

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