Rallying from a 3-0 first period deficit, the University of Alberta Golden Bears scored four unanswered goals to defeat the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 4-3 and clinched first place in the Canada West Hockey combined standings onFriday, February 11th. The win was the first of two for Alberta as the Golden Bears earned their ninth series sweep of the season with a 7-1 victory over UBC on Saturday at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.
By finishing first in the conference's combined standings the Golden Bears are guaranteed home ice advantage throughout the Canada West Hockey post-season.
The Alberta sweep was one of two that occurred on the weekend of Friday-Saturday, February 11th-12th.A week after snapping their 45 game winless streak against Alberta, the University of Calgary Dinos extended their winning streak to three games with a sweep of their home-and-home series with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. Calgary outscored their provincial rivals 18-3 in the two-games as the Dinos won 8-1 at home on Friday and concluded the sweep with a 10-2 victory in Lethbridge on Saturday.
A second home-and-home series took place in Saskatchewan as the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and University of Regina Cougars earned home ice victories to split the series. Saskatchewan scored three shorthanded goals on their way to a 7-2 win in the series opener at Rutherford Arena on Friday. Saturday night saw the series shift to Regina, where the Cougars scored the game's first three goals on their way to a 3-2 victory over the Huskies. The victory ended a 13-game winless streak in conference play that had seen the Cougars compile a 0-10-3 record against Canada West Hockey opponents dating back to November 20th when Regina defeated Lethbridge 4-0.
The loss at Regina prevented Saskatchewan from clinching first place in the Great Plains Division and a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
Friday saw UBC score twice in a two-minute span late in the opening period to take a 3-0 lead over the number one ranked Golden Bears. Thunderbirds' captain, Dustin Paul opened the scoring at 10:31 before UBC expanded its lead to 3-0 on goals by Lance Morrison (17:59) and Ashley Todd (19:59). Morrison scored off a face-off in the Alberta defensive zone and Todd banked a powerplay marker off the back of Golden Bears goaltender Dustin Schwartz's pad with only 0.4 seconds remaining in the period. Both Morrison and Jon Kress registered two points in the first period as Morrison earned an assist on Todd's goal and Kress had two assists. Casey Bartzen and Kyle Bruce also had a hand in the UBC offence, earning assists on Paul's opening goal. The assist was the 31st of the season for Bartzen, who is third in the conference in helpers, while Bruce upped his season totals to 9-9-18 in only 12 games.
The Alberta comeback began in the second period as the Golden Bears scored three times. Tim Krymusa scored twice and added an assist on Perry Johnson's goal that tied the game at 12:37 of the middle stanza to lead the Golden Bears comeback. Ben Kilgour's third period powerplay goal at 5:42 gave Alberta the victory. Brad Tutschek, who has moved into a tie for second place in the Canada West Hockey scoring race with 13-25-38, reached a career milestone with an assist on Kilgour's game winner. It was Tutschek's second assist of the game and his 100th career point in Canada West Hockey conference play. After adding a goal and an assist in Saturday's 7-1 win over UBC to finish the weekend with 1-3-4, Tutschek now has scored 37-65-102 in 104 career conference games.
Krymusa would add two more goals in Alberta's win on Saturday to finish as Alberta's leading scorer for the weekend with 4-1-5. Three of Krymusa's four goals came on the powerplay, including both in the series finale, as Alberta netted four goals with the man advantage on Saturday. Ben Thomson earned assists on all three of the Golden Bears first period goa