A five-point weekend by fourth-year senior Mason Wallin paced the Saskatchewan Huskies to a two-game sweep of the Manitoba Bisons on Friday-Saturday, October 20th-21st, lifting the fifth ranked Huskies into sole possession of first place in the Great Plains Division of Canada West Hockey.
Saskatchewans two road wins were one of two sweeps registered on the weekend as the Calgary Dinos took both ends of a home-and-home series with their provincial rivals the Lethbridge Pronghorns. The Dinos extended their winning streak to three games with two, one-goal victories, earning a 7-6 win in the series opener at Lethbridge and rounding out their first series sweep of the season with a 5-4 victory on home ice at Father David Bauer Olympic Arena on Saturday.
The Alberta Golden Bears and UBC Thunderbirds split their series at Whistler, B.C. with the Thunderbirds earning their first conference home win over the Golden Bears since the 1987-88 season. Stephane Gervais scored the only goal in the first shootout in Canada West Hockey conference history to give UBC a 4-3 victory in the series opener. Gervais, who also scored a first period powerplay goal, was the only shooter to score in the shootout as he deked Alberta goaltender, Aaron Sorochan on the Thunderbirds second attempt. Freshman Francois Thuot stopped all three Golden Bears attempts to give UBC the 1-0 win in the shootout. Alberta salvaged the split, and ended their two game losing streak, with a 3-1 win on Saturday as Ben Kilgour, Ian McDonald and Tyler Metcalfe scored goals for the Golden Bears.
The shootout win by UBC ended two Alberta winning streaks against the Thunderbirds. The first streak ended was a 41-game undefeated streak that had seen the Golden Bears compile a 37-0-4 record against UBC dating back to the 1998-99 season. The last loss by Alberta to UBC was a 5-4 loss at Clare Drake Arena on November 21, 1998. The second streak to fall had seen the Golden Bears go without a loss in conference play at Vancouver for 19 seasons, dating back to 1987-88. Alberta registered a 35-0-4 mark in Canada West Hockey play at the Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre since a 5-4 OT loss on October 16, 1987.
Non-conference play saw the Regina Cougars split a two-game series against the Bemidji State Beavers. The Cougars dropped a 2-0 decision in the series opener against the NCAA Division I opponent before earning the split with a 5-2 victory on Saturday. Dustin Bru scored twice and Caine Pearpoint tallied the game winner as six Cougars scored two points apiece in the victory. Bru (2-0-2), Pearpoint (1-1-2), Scott Degelman (1-1-2), Ryan Cruse (1-1-2), Brennan Champman (0-2-2) and Jason Weitzel (0-2-2) each had a pair of points for Regina. Adam Ward turned aside 40 of the 42 shots he faced to earn his second win of the season. Canada West Hockey teams are now 3-7-0 against NCAA Division I opponents this season. Regina is 1-1-0, while Calgary and Lethbridge both have 1-2-0 records and Manitoba is 0-2-0.
Three series are on tap for the weekend of October 27th-28th as Alberta hosts Manitoba, Lethbridge is at Regina and Calgary visits Saskatchewan.