The number two ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies have taken over sole possession of first place in Canada West Hockey as they extended their undefeated streak to five games by taking three of four points on the road from the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds on Friday-Saturday, October 28th-29th. Scoring three goals in the third period to break open a 1-1 tie, the Huskies took the series opener 4-1 and then skated to a 4-4 overtime tie in the series finale.
The Saskatchewan UBC series was one of three Canada West Hockey series played on the weekend. In other conference play, the number one ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears split their series in Winnipeg against the University of Manitoba Bisons. Alberta took the opener 3-2 before the host Bisons won the series second game 2-1. At Lethbridge, the University of Regina Cougars earned their first series sweep of the season and their second series victory with 1-0 and 8-6 wins over the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns.
With the three points, the Huskies improved their conference record to 5-2-1 and they hold a two point lead over the University of Regina Cougars (4-3-1) in both the Great Plains Division and the conferences combined standings. Saskatchewan is undefeated in its last five conference games with a 4-0-1 record from October 21st to 29th. During their current streak the Huskies have outscored their opponents 23-9. The 4-4 tie on Saturday was the first time this season in conference play that the Huskies have allowed more than three goals against.
Fridays 4-1 win gave Saskatchewan head coach Dave Adolph his 218th Canada West Hockey victory, moving him into a tie for third place on the conferences all-time coaching victories list with former Alberta Golden Bears head coach Rob Daum. Adolphs career conference record is now 218-195-43 (.525) in 17 seasons and his overall coaching record stands at 332-284-51 (.536). Adolph is now 27 wins behind former University of Calgary Dinos coach George Kingston, who holds down second place with 245 career conference wins.
Fourth-year forward Dean Beuker led the offence for Saskatchewan as the former Canada West Hockey scoring champion regained the conference scoring lead with a five point weekend. The right winger was involved in five of Saskatchewans eight goals in the series versus UBC as he scored three times and added two assists. With the five points, Beuker now has 6-9-15 in eight Canada West Hockey conference games and holds a five-point lead over linemate Brent Twordik (1-9-10) and Manitobas Kevin Saurette (2-8-10).
Three of Beukers five points came in the third period of Firdays 4-1 win as Saskatchewan broke open a 1-1 tie with three unanswered goals. After assisting on Jeff Schmidts game-winning goal at 6:35 of the third, Beuker then scored an insurance goal at 13:53 and sealed the win with an empty net goal with only 11 seconds remaining. Curtis Austring had an assist on Beukers empty netter and opened the scoring for Saskatchewan with a second period powerplay goal.
Saturdays game saw Beuker register his second multiple point game of the series with a goal and an assist. He scored a third period powerplay goal and assisted on freshman Matt Girlings first period shorthanded goal. The series finale saw the teams trade goals the entire game as neither team held more than a one-goal lead. Alexcei McAvoy and Colin Johnson, with the game tying goal at 13:25 of the third period, also scored for Saskatchewan, while UBC received goals from four players. Darrell May led the way with a goal and an assist, while Chris Curran, Steve Bunney and Tyler Dietrich each had single goals. Nick Marach had two assists.
It was feast or famine when it came to scoring in the Regina-Lethbridge series as the teams scored only once in the series opener on Friday before combining for a total of 14 goals on Saturday.
Clint Chalmers registered his first shutout of