Mega Golden Bears Update

I’ll confess, I’ve dropped the ball of the University of Alberta Golden Bears’ updates on the Rig. Call it a prolonged Christmas hangover or a blogger getting busy with real life (yes, we have those), but in the end it is inexcusable.

The Bears could be accused of having a Christmas hangover as well. They completely sputtered out of the gate dropping both games in a weekend road series with Manitoba way back on January 8th and 9th. Despite outshooting the Bisons by a combined 87-45 over the two game set, the U of A managed to lose by scores of 7-4 and 3-2. I’m not even sure the Vikings had set foot on Newfoundland the last time the Bears were swept in a weekend series.

The following weekend the Golden Bears were at home versus UBC and went 1-1 with scores of 6-3 (win) and 3-2 (OT loss) despite a shot total for the series favoring the Bears 105-47.

Things briefly improved with the Bears sweeping a weekend series with Regina only to have the momentum slam into a brick wall after losing two straight to the U of C Dinos. At one point, the Bears were actullay 2 games under .500 in 2016.

Last weekend, the Golden Bears played the top team in the Canada West and the only team ranked ahead of them in the national rankings. The Saskatchewan Huskies are ranked 3rd in the CIS and are 6 points ahead of the 3rd place Golden Bears in the Canada West standings. If Alberta needed a tonic to right the ship, a strong showing at home agains the flatlanders would have been the perfect remedy.

The Friday night game between the two rivals was one of the most physical and hard fought games I’ve ever seen in my trips down to the Clare Drake. At one point I honestly thought we may see a bench clearing brawl and, god love them, the fans were banging on the glass so hard one of the panes shattered. In the end the good guys prevailed and the Bears won 3-0. The game was closer than the score with the shots slightly edging the Golden Bears 25-23.

The U of A ending up sweeping the weekend series with a 5-2 victory on Saturday night and a better shot share with a 37-19 edge. After last weekend, the U of A improved to 5-5 since New Year’s Eve. What is surprising is that despite the poor record, the Bears have actually outshot their opponents a combined 412-196 in 2016. I’m not an analytics guy, but I’m guessing their Corsi is off the charts and their PDO is well below average.

This is a crucial weekend for the Bears as they face Mount Royal in a home and home. Mount Royal sits in second, 1 point up on the U of A, going into the final weekend of the regular season. If the U of A can sweep they can secure second place in the Canada West and a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

U of A and Mount Royal have both clinched a spot in the post season. The two teams meet for the second game of the home and home series Saturday night at 6:00pm at the Clare Drake. I can’t go because I am out of the country, but I’ll be watching on Canada West.tv.

Notes

• The Golden Bears are now 17-9 in regular season play
• Despite a rocky start to 2016, the U of A is still ranked 5th in the CIS National Rankings
• The Bears rank 1st in the CIS for shots per game
• The Golden Bears have the 3rd best powerplay in the CIS with a success rate of 29.3%
• Not surprisingly, the U of A’s save percentage is 0.897 and ranked 21st in the Nation
• U of A is 4th in both total attendance (16,284) and average attendance (1253)
• Seniors Hickmott (32), Reddick (29), and Koper (28) lead the Bears in scoring. Jordan Rowley leads the defense with 23 points in 23 games