The common thread in Canada West Hockey play on the weekend of Friday-Saturday, October 15th-16th was working overtime. Of the eight games played during the second week of the Canada West Hockey conference, schedule, five went into overtime, including both games of the UBC Thunderbirds - Calgary Dinos series in Calgary and both games of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies non-conference series against the Lakehead University Thunderwolves.
Only one of the five overtime games ended in a victory as Saskatchewan opened its series in Thunder Bay, Ontario with a 5-4 victory over the Thunderwolves of the Ontario University Athletics conference. The teams skated to a 4-4 tie in the second game of the series. At Calgary, the Dinos opened their conference schedule with back-to-back 3-3 ties against the visiting Thunderbirds. In the other overtime game, the University of Regina Cougars and University of Manitoba Bisons also skated to a 3-3 tie in Regina on Friday.
The only series not to go into overtime was played at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton as the University of Alberta Golden Bears swept the visiting University of Lethbridge Pronghorns 9-0 and 9-3. The two victories extended Alberta's conference undefeated streak on home ice to 50 games as the Golden Bears are 49-0-1 (.990) since their last loss at home, a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Saskatchewan on January 12, 2001.
Highlights of the weekend included:
Calgary's Ryan Annesley completed a Dinos comeback on Friday night when he scored a penalty shot goal with only 37 seconds left in the third period. Calgary was awarded the penalty shot when UBC was ruled to have purposely dislodged the net from its moorings. Annesley netted the game-tying goal at 19:23 to complete a Calgary comeback from a 3-1 deficit. The Dinos also erased a 3-1 deficit in the series finale on Saturday as Adam Loncan and Wes Reid scored third period goals.
UBC goaltender Chris Levesque stopped 77 of 83 shots for a .928 save percentage in backstopping the Thunderbirds to their first two points of the conference schedule. Levesque made 41 saves on Friday and 36 more on Saturday to earn Canada West Hockey Player of the Week honors. UBC was outshot 83-56 by Calgary.
Casey Bartzen returned to the UBC lineup after missing the first week of the conference lineup and contributed two assists on Friday night, including a helper on the game-tying goal. Bartzen was one of four Thunderbirds to record multiple point games in the series. Derek Dinelle (1-2-3) and Dustin Paul (2-1-3) each had three points Eric Clark had two assists.
Alberta Golden Bears goaltender Dustin Schwartz made 19 saves to record his second shutout of the season in Friday's 9-0 win versus Lethbridge. Schwartz, who leads Canada West Hockey goaltenders with a 1.00 GAA in two conference games, now has 10 career shutouts, including eight in conference play. Schwartz is tied with Clint Chalmers of Regina for the conference lead with two shutouts this season.
Four Golden Bears scored five points in a game against Lethbridge. On Friday it was Tyler Shybunka (2-3-5) and Ben Thomson (1-4-5) and on Saturday, Doug Auchenberg (3-2-5) and Joff Kehler (1-4-5) repeated the feat. For Auchenberg, it was his first collegiate hat trick.
Thomson added two more assists in Saturday's win to finish the weekend with seven points (1-6-7). The seven points moves the Golden Bears sophomore into the Canada West Hockey scoring lead with 3-6-9 through the season's first four conference games.
Manitoba's Paul Deniset scored three goals, including two in Saturday's 4-3 victory, to pace the Bisons offence. Two of Deniset's three goals came shorthanded, giving him four on the season. Deniset has scored 6-2-8 in eight games overall, with five of the points (4-1-5) being scored while penalty killing.
Manitoba captain David Cameron scored once in each game of the Bisons series at Regina, netting the game winner in Saturday