For the sixth consecutive season and for the tenth time in the last 11 seasons, the University of Alberta Golden Bears and University of Saskatchewan Huskies will meet in the Canada West Hockey Final.
Alberta will host Saskatchewan in the 2006-07 conference final at Clare Drake Arena on the campus of the University of Alberta on Friday-Sunday, March 9th-11th, with the winner of the series advancing to the CIS University Cup national championship tournament to be held in Moncton, New Brunswick on Thursday-Sunday, March 22nd-25th. All three games of the best-of-three Canada West Hockey Final will face-off at 7:30 pm.
It marks the tenth time since the 1996-97 season that Alberta and Saskatchewan have met for the conference crown and the 14th time since Canada West Hockey began post-season play in 1966-67. The only time that Alberta and Saskatchewan have not met in the conference final since 1996-97 was in 2000-01 when the Golden Bears defeated the University of Manitoba Bisons in two games.
Alberta and Saskatchewan advanced to the conference championship following wins in the division finals on Friday-Saturday, March 2-4th. The Golden Bears advanced to their 11th consecutive Canada West Hockey Final by sweeping the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 2-0 in the Mountain Division final, while the Huskies won the Great Plains Division with two wins over the University of Calgary Dinos.
ALBERTA VERSUS UBC
Alberta earned its 30th trip to the Canada West Hockey final with a sweep of the Thunderbirds, winning 5-1 and 3-2 before 2,944 fans at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton. The series victory was the fifth consecutive by the Golden Bears over UBC, and the first since 1990-91 when the teams last met in post-season play.
Golden Bears team captain Harlan Anderson led the offence and goaltender Aaron Sorochan provided the defence as Alberta extended its winning streak to 16 games in Canada West Hockey playoff action. Alberta is 16-0 dating back to a 4-2 loss versus Saskatchewan on March 7, 2003 in Game 1 of the 2002-03 Canada West Hockey Final. Anderson led all scorers in the series with four points, scoring three points, including the game-winning goal in Game 1 and earning an assist in Game 2.
Alberta opened the series with a 5-1 victory in Game 1 on Friday. After a scoreless first period, the Golden Bears erupted for three goals in a span of 44 seconds to take a 3-0 lead and then added a shorthanded goal to make it 4-0 all in a span of three minutes and fur seconds.
Dylan Stanley opened the scoring at 5:29, beating UBC netminder Francois Thuot on a breakaway after coming out of the penalty box. Thirteen seconds later, Andersons point shot through a screen made it 2-0 and Chad Klassen concluded the scoring binge at 6:13, rifling a shot from the slot on a set-up pass from Stanley.
Dale Mahovsky made it 4-0 at 8:33, completing a nifty two-on-one with Anderson, scoring the Golden Bears first of two shorthanded goals on the night. Anderson faked a shot, freezing Thuot, and dished the puck off to Mahovsky, who fired into a wide open net.
Stephane Gervais put UBC on the scoreboard with a powerplay goal, ruining Sorochans shutout bid at 10:27 of the third period. Tyler Metcalfe concluded the scoring with Albertas second shorthanded goal of the game into an empty net with 16 seconds remaining and Thuot on the bench for an extra attacker.
Thuot made 36 saves in the UBC goal as Alberta outshot the Thunderbirds 41-18.
Facing elimination and the end of their post-season, UBC came out with a much stronger effort in Game 2 on Saturday night, taking a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period on an unassisted goal by Jordan Beirnes. The Thunderbirds would hold the one-goal advantage through the final minute of the period before Ben Kilgour tied the score with a powerplay goal at 19:05. Kilgour netted his first goal of the post-season after taking a pass from Anderson an