Behind the goaltending of Jeff Harvey and a rejuvenated powerplay, the tenth ranked Saskatchewan Huskies skated to a two-game series sweep of the number one ranked Alberta Golden Bears at Rutherford Arena in Saskaoon on Friday-Saturday, November 17th-18th. Saskatchewan took the series opener 5-4 in overtime on a goal by Brett Novak at 3:18 of the extra frame and the Huskies completed the sweep with a 3-2 victory on Saturday.
The two victories marked Saskatchewans first series sweep over Alberta since the 1990-91 season. Saskatchewans last sweep of the Golden Bears came on November 2-3, 1990 when the Huskies earned 4-3 and 5-2 win at Rutherford Arena. Saskatchewan reached a team milestone with the two wins versus Alberta. Saturdays victory was the Huskies 600th career win in Canada West Hockey conference play. Since being one of the three charter members of the conference in 1919-20, the Huskies have compiled a record of 600-557-62 (.518) in 1,219 games. The 600 wins are second only to Albertas 861.
In other Canada West Hockey series on the weekend, the Manitoba Bisons kept pace with Saskatchewan in the Great Plains Division of Canada West Hockey with a series sweep of the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns. Manitoba reached the .500 mark and evened their conference record at 7-7-0 with a 4-3 overtime shootout win and a 5-2 victory. With the two victories, the Bisons are in second place in the Great Plains Division, three points behind Saskatchewan and three points in front of the Regina Cougars. The Cougars split their series with the UBC Thunderbirds, with both teams winning in a shootout.
Regina took the series opener 4-3 on Friday night and UBC earned the split with a 2-1 win in a second shootout on Saturday. With the two shootouts, Regina has been involved in a conference-high five shootouts this season and is 2-3. The Cougars have gone to a shootout in each of their last three games, in four of their last five and in five of their last eight games from October 27th to November 18th.
Following this weeks play, the Canada West Hockey standings are close to a logjam as only nine points separates conference-leading Alberta from Lethbridge, who has nine points, but holds two games in hand on its three other Mountain Division opponents. The Golden Bears top the conference with 18 points and hold a one point lead over both Saskatchewan, who tops the Great Plains Division, and the Calgary Dinos.
At Saskatoon, the Huskies jumped into first period leads in both games and held on two defeat Alberta by a goal. On Friday, Jeff Schmidt opened the scoring with a powerplay goal five minutes into the game and Mark Hinz made it 2-0 with his first collegiate goal at 11:48. After freshman defenceman Kyle Fecho cut the Saskatchewan lead in half at 12:31, Mason Wallin made it 301 for the Huskies after 20 minutes of play. Schmidt made it 4-1 with his second powerplay goal of the game 5:14 into the second period. The Golden Bears rallied to tie the score on second period goals by Ian McDonald and Ben Kilgour (SHG) and a third period powerplay goal by Derek Price. Brett Novak then netted the game winner 3:18 into overtime. It was Novaks third point of the game as he earned two assists on Schmidts two powerplay goals. McDonald and Kilgour also had three point games for the Golden Bears, finishing with a goal and two assists.
Jeff Harvey was instrumental in the Huskies win, stopping 37 of 41 shots as Saskatchewan was outshot 41-40. Harvey continued his outstanding play in Saturdays finale with a 29 save performance, stopping 66 of 72 shots in the series to improve his conference record to 8-3-0. The eight victories top the conference.
As in Fridays game, the Huskies took an early lead, scoring twice in the first period and extending the lead to 3-0 early in the third period. Trent Adamus, who returned to the lineup from the injured list, netted his first goal of the season to open the scoring at 1