Golden Bears Update Week 6

The University of Alberta Golden Bears split their 2 game home-&-home series with the University of Calgary Dinos last weekend. Their .500 record versus Calgary saw the Golden Bears fall from #3 to #5 in the U Sports top 10. The University of New Brunswick and St. Francis Xavier University maintain their 1st and 2nd positions respectively. The University of Saskatchewan (#4) and Mount Royal University (#6) are the only other Canada West teams represented in the national top 10. The Bears won the Friday contest in double overtime 5-4. They lost the rematch in Calgary on Saturday 3-1.

Last Friday night at the Clare Drake fans were treated to a fast paced and spirited game between the two provincial rivals. The Bears came out of the gate quickly and dominated play for the first half of the game. The Golden Bears had a 4-3 lead, paced by two goals from Luke Philp, going into the final minute of the third period. The Dinos were on the penalty kill in the dying minute when Elgin Pearce managed to even the score for Calgary and take the game to overtime. The first 4 on 4 overtime did not produce the game winning goal so the game switched to 3 on 3 in the fifth frame. The Dinos gifted the Bears a two man advantage and the 3 on 3 format switched to 5 on 3. Jayden Hart took full advantage and powered home his 8th of the season to seal the 5-4 victory for Alberta. The Golden Bears also edged the Dinos in shots 41-29.

The Saturday game in Calgary was entirely different for the University of Alberta. The team couldn’t get anything going from the opening puck drop. Brendan Burke got the start in goal relieving Luke Siemens who started on Friday. He made 13 stops on the 15 shots he faced which should have been enough to allow the Golden Bears to earn a road victory. However, Alberta’s offence sputtered and only Trevor Cox was able to find the back of the net on the power-play midway through the third period. Cain Franson, Brayden Sherbinin, and Logan Fisher (empty net) scored for Calgary to give the Dinos a 3-1 win. The shots favored the Bears 24-16.

Notes

• Jamie Crooks, Jayden Hart, and Luke Philp are 1, 2, 3 in the scoring race in the Canada West. With Tyson Baillie holding the 9th spot the Bears have 4 of the top 10 scorers in their league. Luke Philp and Tyson Baillie are both rookies.
• Todd Fiddler made his debut for the Bears last weekend. He spent the last few seasons in the East Coast Hockey League and had to sit out of professional hockey last season (as well as U Sports play) and wait for 365 days to pass from his last professional game. This waiting period is required by U Sports for former professionals before they play in the league. Fiddler is a former standout in the WHL after having seasons of 42 and 50 goals.
• Luke Siemens and Brendan Burke split the goaltending duties last weekend. Siemens was okay on Friday night and Burke was good on Saturday. Siemens owns the better SP% at .918 and Burke owns the better GAA at 1.84. Siemens has a record of 4-0 and Burke is 2-2. My guess is that coach Lajoie goes back to the veteran Siemens this weekend against Manitoba.

Up Next

Alberta plays a 2 game series at the Clare Drake against the 5-5 University of Manitoba Bisons this weekend. The Bisons are currently fifth in the Canada West. Shaq Merasty is the Bisons leading scorer with 3 goals and 11 points in 10 games. Both games will be played at the Clare Drake Arena at the University of Alberta. The puck drops on Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 6pm. Ticket information can be found here. Both games can be viewed online at canadawest.tv.