Anniversaries are meant to be celebrated and the University of Calgary Dinos did some celebrating with a 6-2 victory over the visiting University of Alberta Golden Bears at Father David Bauer Olympic Arena on Saturday, February 5th. The win came a day after the Dinos had suffered a 12-0 loss to the Golden Bears in the opening game of the home-and-home series at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.
The Alberta-Calgary series was one of three played on the weekend of Friday-Saturday, February 4th-5th as the University of Manitoba Bisons earned three of four points from the visiting University of Regina Cougars with a 4-4 tie and a 2-0 win. The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and University of Lethbridge Pronghorns split their series in Vancouver with the visiting Pronghorns taking the series opener 4-1 and the Thunderbirds earning a 4-0 victory in the finale.
Calgary's win over Alberta on Saturday came exactly six years after the Dinos last win against the Golden Bears - a 6-5 triumph on February 5, 1999 in Edmonton. In the six years between wins, Calgary had gone 45 games without defeating Alberta. Over that span, the Golden Bears put together a 39-0-6 undefeated streak versus the Dinos.
Wade Davis and Gable Gross each scored twice, while Wes Reid and Drew Campbell added single goals in the Dinos win. Davis scored two second period powerplay goals, including the game winning goal, and added an assist to top the Calgary attack with three points. Five Dinos registered multiple points game in the victory as Davis was joined by Gross (2-0-2), Reid (1-1-2), Ryan Annesley (0-2-2) and team captain Bracken Kearns (0-2-2). Calgary scored twice in each period as the Dinos held 2-0 and 4-1 leads at the intermissions. Don Choukalos earned the first Calgary win against Alberta since 1999 with 32 saves as the Dinos were outshot 34-29. Brad Tutschek and Ben Kilgour scored goals for Alberta with Kilgour earning his second multiple point game of the weekend with a assist on Tutschek's powerplay goal.
The series opener in Edmonton the night before was a totally different story for the Dinos as they fell behind early and were never in the game. Wade Burt opened a 12 goal onslaught for the Golden Bears only 1:40 after the opening face-off and Alberta extended their lead to 4-0 by the 6:12 mark, sending the Dinos starting goaltender, Scott Talbot to the bench in exchange for Choukalos. Alberta would go on to score six goals in the opening 20 minutes of play and add three more tallies in both the second and third periods.
Defenceman Harlan Anderson and forward Jonathan Hobson paced the Golden Bears offensive attack as Anderson led the way with a five point night, scoring one of Alberta's four powerplay goals and adding four assists. Hobson scored three times for his first hat trick and finished the night with four points. Anderson's five points moves him into tie with his defensive partner, Perry Johnson, for the scoring lead among conference blueliners. Anderson (8-24-32) and Johnston (6-26-32) each have 32 points and hold a four point lead over Scott Schoneck (11-17-28) of Saskatchewan.
Fifteen of the 18 Alberta skaters registered at least a single point in the win, with 11 Golden Bears registering multiple point games. Kilgour and Johnson each had three points with a goal and two assists. They were joined by Tyler Shybunka (1-1-2), Ben Thomson (1-1-2), Scott Henkelman (1-1-2), Justin Wallin (0-2-2), Brad Tutschek (0-2-2), Richard Hamula (0-2-2) and Gavin McLeod (0-2-2) with two point games.
Dustin Schwartz made 25 saves to register his record tying fourth shutout of the season for Alberta as the Golden Bears outshot Calgary 45-25 before a crowd of 2,880 at Clare Drake Arena. The Alberta-Calgary series drew almost 4,000 fans for the two games as 1,020 took the game in at Calgary on Saturday.
In Winnipeg, freshman goaltender Krister Toews backstopped the Bisons into a tie for first place in t