Courtesy of UBC Thunderbirds Sports Information

VANCOUVER – Manraj Hayer (Vancouver) scored the game-winning goal, and his second of the night, early in overtime to give the UBC Thunderbirds a 4-3 regular season-opening victory over the Mount Royal Cougars Friday in Vancouver.

The triumph was historic on two fronts. It was UBC's 500th Canada West conference victory and the very first for new head coach Adam Shell.

In their 53rd season as members of Canada West hockey, the Thunderbirds' all-time record in league play is 500-728-59 (.411), having scored 4,662 goals while allowing 5,339.

It was all made possible by Hayer, who walked in around the defence and fired the puck short side on Mount Royal goaltender Cam Lanigan. He tried to catch the puck between his stick-side arm and his body, but it squeezed through, ending the tense contest.

In addition to Hayer's two goals, UBC also had scoring from newcomer Josh Connolly and Luke Lockhart. For the Cougars, Matthew Brown matched Hayer with two goals while Tanner Olstad added the other.

In a hard-fought 60 minutes, the T-Birds lost a two-goal lead in the third period, and were out-shot 30-22.

"It wasn't easy," said Shell. "They were probably the better team or the second part of that game," he admitted.

MRU sent the game to extra time thanks to two third-period goals after Lockhart scored shorthanded 46 seconds into the third to make it 3-1 UBC.

Less than two minutes later, the Cougars got to within one as UBC goalie Eric Williams couldn't control a rebound off a shot from the slot. The loose puck fell right to Olstad, who popped home the rebound.

Then Brown made it 3-3 on a great individual effort. He got the puck inside his own zone, skated across the UBC blue line, faked inside and then went outside and around a UBC defenceman before cutting back towards the net to score on his forehand.

Brown's first goal was similarly spectacular. At 15:03 of the opening period, with his team down 1-0, Brown got a pass at the UBC blueline from Bill Marshall and cut towards the middle at the right faceoff dot and fired a wrist shot over the shoulder of Williams.

However, Hayer scored a deflating goal with less than a second left in the first period to put UBC back up 2-1, setting up an entertaining and exciting third period and overtime.

Williams stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced for the win, while Lanigan made 18 stops in a losing cause.

The second game of the weekend series between the Thunderbirds and Cougars will go at 6 p.m. PT on Saturday in Vancouver.