A week after having their 19-game undefeated streak ended, the University of Alberta Golden Bears returned to the win column with a sweep of the University of Regina Cougars. Alberta earned its eighth series sweep of the season with 5-2 and 6-4 wins at Regina on Friday-Saturday, January 28th-29th.
In Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba Bisons brought the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds' six-game undefeated streak to an end, but needed overtime to accomplish the task. UBC, which started the second half of the season schedule with a 5-0-1 streak from January 7th to 22nd, saw the streak halted with a 3-2 loss in overtime in the series opener on Friday. The teams went into overtime a second time on Saturday and skated to a 4-4 tie.
The second ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the University of Calgary Dinos split their series in Calgary as the Huskies took the first game of the twin bill 4-2 on Friday and the Dinos took the second game 5-3.
Sophomore forward Ben Thomson enjoyed a five-point weekend in leading Alberta to its sweep at Regina. Thomson, who sits in fifth place in the Canada West Hockey scoring race with 11-19-30, began the weekend with a two assist effort in Alberta's series opening win on Friday and then scored a powerplay goal and two more assists in Saturday's 6-4 victory.
Joff Kehler and Tim Krymusa each had two-goal games for the Golden Bears on Friday and the pair added another three points in Saturday's victory. Kehler tallied a third goal and an assist on Saturday to end the weekend with 3-1-4, while Krymusa had an assist.
Regina came four minutes away from earning a victory in Saturday's game with Alberta as the Cougars built a 4-3 lead after two periods on goals by Chris Frohlick, Lance Kopan, Jason Weitzel and Chad Anderson. Defenceman Kurtis Dulle, who scored a powerplay goal in Friday's loss, had two assists on Saturday.
Heading into the final four minutes of the final frame, Alberta trailed Regina 4-3 before the Golden Bears erupted for three goals and the win in a span of a minute and 59 seconds. Kehler began the comeback by tying the score at 15:56 with his third goal of the series. Fifty-two seconds later Steve Shrum scored the game-winner at 16:48 and Thomson sealed the victory with a powerplay goal at 17:55.
David Cameron's second goal of the game, 47 seconds into overtime, lifted the Manitoba Bisons to a 3-2 win over UBC on Friday. Cameron had sent the game into overtime with his first goal of the game at 5:34 of the third period. Everett Bear opened the scoring for Manitoba with his first goal of the season 8:38 after the opening face-off and the Bisons held the lead into the second period when Eric Clark and Matt McMahon scored for UBC. Cameron and linemate Warren McCutcheon each had three point games as Cameron added an assist to finish with 1-2-3 and McCutcheon earned assists on all three of the Bisons goals.
The loss was also the first of the season for UBC goaltender Doug Groenestege, who had gone 5-0-1 in six starts since joining the Thunderbirds for the second half of the season.
Saturday saw the teams battle to a 4-4 tie as Manitoba's Paul Deniset scored three times for his fourth hat trick of the season. Deniset's linemates Chris Falloon and Kevin Saurette each had two assists as the trio combined for seven points, while Everett Bear added his second goal in as many games. Bear, who had gone without a goal through his first 25 games, opened the scoring in both games against UBC. Dustin Paul netted the game-tying goal for UBC at 14:18 of the third period. Paul was one of four Thunderbirds to beat Bisons goaltender Krister Toews. Paul was joined by Steve Bunney, Adam Gibson and Kyle Bruce. With the goal, Bruce lifted his scoring totals to 9-5-14 in 8 games.
At Calgary, Scott Talbot made 40 saves to backstop the Calgary Dinos to a 5-3 win and a series split with the second ranked Saskatchewan Huskies on<