The University of Alberta Golden Bears are back from their holiday break. The University of British Columbia provided the opposition for the Bears’ first series of 2017 last weekend at the Clare Drake. Typically games against UBC are viewed as guaranteed win nights. That has not been the case this season for the University of Alberta Golden Bears. A split last weekend with the Left-coasters has left the Bears with a 2-2 record against the Thunderbirds this season. The huge influx of rookies for coach Serge Lajoie’s squad will have to learn not to take any teams in the Canada West lightly.
The Friday night game started poorly for the Bears as UBC jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Bardaro and Clayton. Ben Carroll and Tyson Baillie tied the game in the second. The Bears took the lead late in the second when former San Jose Barracuda and Spokane Chief Jason Fram scored on the power play in his debut for Alberta. Bardaro scored his second goal of the game late in the third period to take the game to overtime. Dylan Bredo scored a 2:41 of the first overtime frame to ice the win for Alberta. Alberta also edged BC in shots with a 41-24 margin. Luke Siemens made 21 save for the Bears.
Brendan Burke entered the Golden Bears’ crease for the Saturday night game. UBC managed to close the shot gap compared to Friday’s game and hold the Bears to 32 while putting up 27. Just like Friday the Thunderbirds jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first on goals by Bardaro and Becker. Tyson Baillie had a goal and an assist in the second period to even the score. However, Joe Antilla scored late in the third period to give the win to British Columbia.
Notes
- The Bears have added two more players with professional experience for the second half of the season. Defenseman Jason Fram scored a goal in his debut for the Bears. He comes to Alberta after a strong junior career with the Spokane Chiefs and games with both the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda and the ECHL’s Allen Americans earlier this season. Cole Sanford, a former attendee of the Edmonton Oilers’ rookie camp, also joined the Golden Bears last weekend. He spent 19 games with the Colorado Eagles earlier this season picking up 7 goals and 15 points. Sanford had 50 goals and 95 points in 72 games for the Medicine Hat Tigers back in 2014-15.
- Alberta played two exhibition games over the winter break. They faced off against two of the local ACAC teams between Christmas and New Years. On December 29th they beat the NAIT Ooks by a 3-2 score. The following night Alberta handed the Grant MacEwan Griffins a 6-2 loss.
- To start the new year Alberta has dropped from 4th to 6th in the U Sports National Rankings.
Up Next
Alberta plays a home series against the University of Regina Cougars this weekend. The Cougars are 3-14-1 on the season and not nationally ranked. The Friday night battle is at 7pm at the Clare Drake Arena at the University of Alberta. The Saturday night game starts at 6pm and is also at the Clare Drake.
You can get your tickets for both games here.
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