Fourth-year senior Ryan Annesley scored twice, including the game winner, and junior goaltender Scott Talbot made 40 saves to lead the Calgary Dinos to a 5-3 road victory over the Alberta Golden Bears in the second game of a two-game Canada West Hockey series on Saturday, October 14th.
The win was the first by the Dinos at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton since the 1998-99 season. Calgary had gone 0-36-2 during the streak that began on March 5, 1999 with a 6-3 loss in Game 1 of the conference semi-final playoff round. Prior to Saturdays victory, Calgarys last win against the Golden Bears at Clare Drake Arena was a 6-5 victory on February 5, 1999. Dinos team captain Brett Thurston earned first star honors with a three point performance as he helped key the win with a goal and two assists.
Dylan Stanley and Ben Kilgour each scored a goal and two assists to give Alberta a 5-3 win in the series opener on Friday night.
The split in the Alberta-Calgary series was the first of three in Canada West Hockey action on the weekend of October 13th-14th. The Lethbridge Pronghorns became the final team to open its conference schedule with a come-from-behind 7-5 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday, before the T-Birds rallied to earn the split with a 5-2 win in the second game. In a battle of provincial rivals in Saskatchewan, the Regina Cougars and Saskatchewan Huskies split their home-and-home series with both teams winning on home ice. Regina opened the series with a 3-2 win on Friday before the Huskies took the second game 6-3 at Rutherford Arena in Saskatoon on Saturday.
Saskatchewan head coach Dave Adolph reached a couple of coaching milestones on the weekend. Adolph, recorded his 200th career Canada West Hockey conference victory with Saturdays win over Regina. Now in his 14th season with the Huskies (1993-94 to 2006-07), Adolph is 200-128-38 (.595) in Canada West Hockey play. The win was also his 350th career coaching victory. Adolph, who began his CIS coaching career in 1989-90 with the Lethbridge Pronghorns, has an overall career record of 350-298-54 (.537) in 702 games.
In the seven Canada West Hockey series played over the first three weeks of the conference schedule, only one has seen a sweep. The other six series have resulted in splits. Alberta has earned the only sweep of the season to date with back-to-back 6-2 wins at Regina on October 6th-7th.
Freshman forward Mark Shefchyk scored his first career collegiate hat trick as part of a five-point night to pace Lethbridge to a victory in the Pronghorns conference home opener. The first-year left winger helped the Prongrhorns rally from three, two-goal deficits to earn the come-from-behind victory. Shefchyk led all scorers with 3-2-5 and was joned by teammate Logan Lavorato, who tallied 1-3-4. UBC, led by Brad Zanons and Darrell Mays goal and an assist, built up a 4-2 first period lead and led 5-3 three minutes into the third period before the Pronghorns scored four times in the games final 15 minutes for the win.
Marc Desloges scored twice, and Zanon added the game-winning goal and two assists to lead UBC to a 5-2 win in the series finale on Saturday. With his three points, Zanon finished the weekend with 2-3-5. Zanons defensive partner Kevin Seibel added three assists in Saturdays win and had one helper in the loss on Friday. Jason Roberts led the Pronghorns with a goal and an assist on Saturday and had two assists on Friday for a four point series.
In Regina, the Cougars defeated Saskatchewan 3-2 as the team scored all five of the games goals on the powerplay. Caine Pearpoint had two of the Cougars goals, including the game winner with only 2:11 left in the third period. Jason Weitzel had a goal and assisted on Pearpoints game winner. Curtis Austring and Matt Girling scored their first goals of the season for the Huskies in a losing effort.
The series shifted to Saskatoon for the finale on Saturday and M