The final week of the Canada West Hockey schedule's first half was highlighted by a head-to-head meeting between the top two teams in the conference's Great Plains Division. The second ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies played host to the fifth ranked University of Manitoba Bisons in a two-game series at Rutherford Arena in Saskatoon on Friday-Saturday, December 3rd-4th.
At stake was first place in the division. Entering the series, Manitoba held top spot in the Great Plains Division by a single point over Saskatchewan, with the Huskies having two games in hand on the Bisons. Both games saw Saskatchewan jump into a 1-0 first period lead and then extend the lead with multiple goals in the second period on their way to 5-0 third period leads before earning back-to-back 5-1 wins. Saskatchewan goaltender Thomas Vicars came close to registering his first shutout of the season in both games only to have Manitoba ruin the shutout bid in the game's dying moments. On Firday, Vicars came within seven seconds of a shutout before Mike Van Den Bosch scored at 19:53 of the third period and on Saturday, Manitoba captain David Cameron ruined the shutout with a powerplay goal at 18:49.
With the four points, Saskatchewan moved three points in front of Manitoba in the division and the Huskies are seven points behind the University of Alberta in the conference's combined standings, although they have two games in hand on the Golden Bears.
Offensively, the Huskies were led Brad Twordik's three goal weekend. Twordik scored twice on Friday, including the game winning goal and an unassisted shorthanded goal, and then added a powerplay goal on Saturday. Conference scoring leader Dean Beuker was held without a point in the series opener but returned to the scoresheet with 1-2-3 in the finale of the series. Bruce Harrison scored twice on Friday while Ryan Johnston had two goals in Saturday's victory for the Huskies.
Heading into the Christmas break, Beuker tops the Canada West Hockey scoring list in both conference and overall play. The third-year forward leads the conference scoring race with 7-17-24 in 14 games, two points in front of Ben Thomson of the University of Alberta, who holds second place with 9-13-22 in 16 games. Two other players have reached the 20-point plateau as Manitoba's Paul Deniset is third with 10-11-21 in 16 games and Alberta's Brad Tutschek is fourth with 8-12-20 in 16 games.
In overall play, Beuker is averaging 1.5 points-per-game with 12-24-36 in 24 games. Alberta's Tutschek and Thomson are second and third with 9-19-28 and 10-16-26, respectively.
Alberta became the first team in the conference to claim a playoff berth as the Golden Bears skated to a sweep of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. Led by Brad Tutschek's six point weekend, Alberta defeated the visiting Pronghorns 7-2 and 8-3. Tutschek netted 2-4-6 in the series, including 1-3-4 in the series opener on Friday, to pace the Golden Bears offence which also saw a trio of players score five points. Defenceman Harlan Anderson (2-3-5) and forwards Ben Thomson 1-4-5) and Ben Kilgour (2-3-5) each scored five points.
Fifth-year goaltender Dustin Schwartz extended his undefeated streak to 12 games with 18 saves in Alberta's win on Saturday. The victory gives Schwartz a 10-0-2 record in overall play and a perfect 10-0-0 in Canada West Hockey action. He leads Canada West Hockey with a 1.30 GAA and .949 save percentage in conference play and has a 1.40 GAA and .943 save percentage overall.
The two wins over Lethbridge extended Alberta's undefeated streak in Canada West Hockey games at Clare Drake Arena to 57. The Golden Bears are 56-0-1 on home ice in conference games since their last loss - a 4-2 decision to Saskatchewan on January 12, 2001.
For the Pronghorns, Billy Katelnikoff continued his hot hat with a four point series. A week after earning conference player-of-the-week honors with five points (3-2-5) ag