In what is becoming a rite of spring in Canada West Hockey, the University of Alberta Golden Bears and University of Saskatchewan Huskies will meet in the conference final. Alberta and Saskatchewan have advanced to the Canada West Hockey Final for the fourth consecutive season and for the eighth time in the last nine seasons.
Alberta will host Saskatchewan in the 2004-05 Canada West Hockey Final at Clare Drake Arena on the campus of the University of Alberta on Friday-Sunday, March 11th-13th. Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-three series will face-off at 7:30 pm, and if a third game is necessary, it will begin at 7:00 pm.
It marks the eighth time since the 1996-97 season that Alberta and Saskatchewan have met for the conference crown and the 12th time since Canada West Hockey began post-season play in 1966-67.
Alberta and Saskatchewan advanced to the conference championship following wins in the division finals on Friday-Saturday, March 4th-5th. The Golden Bears advanced to their ninth consecutive Canada West Hockey Final by sweeping the University of Calgary Dinos 2-0 in the Mountain Division final, while the Huskies won the Great Plains Division with two wins over the University of Manitoba Bisons.
With their series victories, Alberta and Saskatchewan have now earned two of Canada West Hockey's three berths in the CIS University Cup tournament that will be hosted by the Golden Bears at Clare Drake Arena and Rexall Place from March 24th to 28th.
Despite losing in last week's division finals, both Manitoba and Calgary have a second chance in the post-season as it is Canada West Hockey's turn to have the CIS wild card position for the 2005 University Cup tournament. With Alberta advancing to the Canada West Hockey final, the Golden Bears position as host of the University Cup is now vacated, setting the stage for Manitoba and Calgary to battle for the wild card position.
Having finished five points ahead of Calgary in the conference's combined standings, Manitoba has earned the right to host the Canada West Hockey Wild Card Final. The best-of-three series will be played at the Max Bell Centre in Winnipeg on Friday-Sunday, March 11th-13th.
ALBERTA VERSUS CALGARY: Alberta earned its 28th trip to the Canada West Hockey final with a sweep of the Dinos, winning 4-3 and 7-1 before 3,325 fans at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton. The series victory improved the Golden Bears playeff record versus Calgary to 13-7 and extended Alberta's post-season winning streak over the Dinos to 16 games, dating back to the 1995-96 division final.
Brad Tutschek and Richard Hamula paced the Alberta offence in the sweep of Calgary as the duo combined for eight points. Tutschek topped the Golden Bears scoring list with five points as the fourth-year center netted three goals and two assists. Two of his three goals were scored in the series opener on Friday with both goals coming on the powerplay. Tutschek added a third goal and a powerplay assist in the series finale and is tied for fourth place in the conference's playoff scoring race with 3-2-5.
Hamula is second on the Golden Bears scoring list with 2-1-3, scoring single goals in each game and adding an assist to register a multiple-point game on Saturday. Both of Hamula's goals proved crucial as the Alberta sophomore netted the deciding goal in each victory. On Friday, Hamula gave Alberta a 4-0 lead, converting a cross-ice pass from linemate Jonathan Hobson to beat Calgary netminder Scott Talbot 1:56 into the second period. Saturday saw Hamula take a lead pass from defenceman Perry Johnson and score a shorthanded goal only 4:52 into the first period. The goal was Alberta's second of the game and it stood-up for the winner as the Golden Bears went on to score five more times.
Both games saw the Golden Bears jump out to early leads. On Friday, Alberta led 2-0 only 10 minutes after the opening face-off on goals by Joel Andresen and Tutschek, and the<