SASKATCHEWAN SWEEPS TOP RANKED ALBERTA
RELEASE #2006-07-10 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2006
SASKATCHEWAN SWEEPS TOP RANKED ALBERTA
FOR 600TH CAREER CANADA WEST HOCKEY VICTORY
Behind the goaltending of Jeff Harvey and a rejuvenated powerplay, the tenth ranked Saskatchewan Huskies skated to a two-game series sweep of the number one ranked Alberta Golden Bears at Rutherford Arena in Saskaoon on Friday-Saturday, November 17th-18th. Saskatchewan took the series opener 5-4 in overtime on a goal by Brett Novak at 3:18 of the extra frame and the Huskies completed the sweep with a 3-2 victory on Saturday.
The two victories marked Saskatchewan’s first series sweep over Alberta since the 1990-91 season. Saskatchewan’s last sweep of the Golden Bears came on November 2-3, 1990 when the Huskies earned 4-3 and 5-2 win at Rutherford Arena. Saskatchewan reached a team milestone with the two wins versus Alberta. Saturday’s victory was the Huskies’ 600th career win in Canada West Hockey conference play. Since being one of the three charter members of the conference in 1919-20, the Huskies have compiled a record of 600-557-62 (.518) in 1,219 games. The 600 wins are second only to Alberta’s 861.
In other Canada West Hockey series on the weekend, the Manitoba Bisons kept pace with Saskatchewan in the Great Plains Division of Canada West Hockey with a series sweep of the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns. Manitoba reached the .500 mark and evened their conference record at 7-7-0 with a 4-3 overtime shootout win and a 5-2 victory. With the two victories, the Bisons are in second place in the Great Plains Division, three points behind Saskatchewan and three points in front of the Regina Cougars. The Cougars split their series with the UBC Thunderbirds, with both teams winning in a shootout.
Regina took the series opener 4-3 on Friday night and UBC earned the split with a 2-1 win in a second shootout on Saturday. With the two shootouts, Regina has been involved in a conference-high five shootouts this season and is 2-3. The Cougars have gone to a shootout in each of their last three games, in four of their last five and in five of their last eight games from October 27th to November 18th.
Following this week’s play, the Canada West Hockey standings are close to a logjam as only nine points separates conference-leading Alberta from Lethbridge, who has nine points, but holds two games in hand on its three other Mountain Division opponents. The Golden Bears top the conference with 18 points and hold a one point lead over both Saskatchewan, who tops the Great Plains Division, and the Calgary Dinos.
At Saskatoon, the Huskies jumped into first period leads in both games and held on two defeat Alberta by a goal. On Friday, Jeff Schmidt opened the scoring with a powerplay goal five minutes into the game and Mark Hinz made it 2-0 with his first collegiate goal at 11:48. After freshman defenceman Kyle Fecho cut the Saskatchewan lead in half at 12:31, Mason Wallin made it 301 for the Huskies after 20 minutes of play. Schmidt made it 4-1 with his second powerplay goal of the game 5:14 into the second period. The Golden Bears rallied to tie the score on second period goals by Ian McDonald and Ben Kilgour (SHG) and a third period powerplay goal by Derek Price. Brett Novak then netted the game winner 3:18 into overtime. It was Novak’s third point of the game as he earned two assists on Schmidt’s two powerplay goals. McDonald and Kilgour also had three point games for the Golden Bears, finishing with a goal and two assists.
Jeff Harvey was instrumental in the Huskies win, stopping 37 of 41 shots as Saskatchewan was outshot 41-40. Harvey continued his outstanding play in Saturday’s finale with a 29 save performance, stopping 66 of 72 shots in the series to improve his conference record to 8-3-0. The eight victories top the conference.
As in Friday’s game, the Huskies took an early lead, scoring twice in the first period and extending the lead to 3-0 early in the third period. Trent Adamus, who returned to the lineup from the injured list, netted his first goal of the season to open the scoring at 18:28. Adamus’ goal came with the Huskies enjoying a two-man advantage and Keegan McAvoy upped the Saskatchewan lead to 2-0 with a second powerplay goal at 19:39.
Wallin netted his second goal of the series with Saskatchewan’s third powerplay goal of the game 1:26 into the third period to make it 3-0 for the Huskies. Dylan Stanley and Jesse Gimblett scored for Alberta as the Golden Bears third period rally fell short for the second consecutive night. Kilgour earned an assist on Gimblett’s second goal of the season to finish the series with 1-3-4.
Saskatchewan, who had struggled on the powerplay of late, saw their special team play thrive against Alberta as the Huskies scored five of their eight goals with the man advantage, while their penalty killing unit allowed the Golden Bears only a single goal in 16 shorthanded situations.
Keegan McAvoy led the way for the Huskies in Saturday’s win with 1-2-3, while Curtis Austring had three assists and Wallin added a goal and an assist.
Chris Falloon scored twice and added the deciding goal in the shootout to lead Manitoba to a 4-3 win in the series opener over Lethbridge on Friday night at Winnipeg. The Bisons’ assistant captain scored twice on the powerplay and then netted one of two goals in the shootout as Manitoba outscored the Pronghorns 2-0. Dustin Hughes earned assists on all three Manitoba goals.
For Lethbridge, freshman Mark Shefchy led the way with a goal and assist, while Devon Featherstone and Justin Cruse also scored singles. Pronghorns captain Jay Langager had two assists.
The teams combined to score five of the games goals on the powerplay as Manitoba was 2-12 with the man advantage and Lethbridge was 3-11. The only goal to be scored at even strength was the game’s first goal as Josh Belair gave Manitoba a 1-0 lead at 9:39 of the first period.
A trio of Bisons scored a goal and an assist in Saturday’s win. Hughes, and freshmen Travis Kornelsen and Stewart Thiessen each had two point games with Hughes scoring the game winner on the powerplay as Manitoba built a 3-0 lead. Kornelsen and Thiessen earned assists on the game winner. With the two points in Saturday’s victory, Hughes finished the series with a goal and four assists to lead all scorers. Jamie Dowhayko and Falloon also scored for the Bisons, with Falloon finishing the weekend with three goals.
Shaun Norrie had a goal and an assist to pace the Pronghorns, who rallied to within a goal of the Bisons at 3-2, before Manitoba sealed the series sweep with two unanswered third period goals. Jason Roberts also scored for Lethbridge, while Shefchyk added two assists for a four-point series.
Shefchyk’s four points moved the freshman forward into the Canada West Hockey scoring lead. The 6’2”, 195 pound forward from Winnipeg, Manitoba tops the conference with 10-11-21 in 10 games. He holds a one-point lead over a trio of players, despite playing fewer games. Calgary’s Jarret Lukin (10-10-20) and Ryan Annesley (9-11-20), along with Alberta’s Dylan Stanley (6-14-20) are tied for second place with 20 points.
The Regina – UBC series featured a pair of shootouts, making it the first series in Canada West Hockey history to have both games go to a shootout. The homestanding Cougars took the series opener 4-3 as Scott Degelman netted the only goal of the shootout to secure the win for Regina. After a scoreless opening period, the Cougars took a 3-1 second period lead as Jesse matlock opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal and James Ardelan and Degelman followed with even strength goals. With only five seconds left in the middle frame, UBC got on the scoreboard on a goal by Matt Schneider. Chris Curran made it 2-0 midway through the third period and Darrell May sent the game to overtime with a powerplay goal with only 22 seconds remaining in regulation.
Saturday’s finale, saw Caine Pearpoint give Regina a 1-0 lead at 15:45 of the first period and May struck for his second powerplay goal of the series midway through the third period to tie the score at 1-1. After a scoreless overtime period, the teams went to a shootout for the second consecutive night and it took a record nine rounds to decide the winner.
Both teams failed to score on their first three shots, so the shootout went to sudden death. Both teams scored goals in the fourth and sixth rounds before being blanked in round seven and eight. Kevin Seibel sent the Thunderbirds home victorious, scoring in the ninth round, while Cougars’ captain Scott Haggarty was stopped by UBC goaltender Francois Thuot.
SHOOTOUT SUMMARY
Through the first seven weeks of the Canada West Hockey conference schedule a total of eight games have gone to a shootout to decide a winner, including two of six games this past week. Each of the conference’s seven teams have been involved in at least one shootout with the Regina Cougars leading the way with five shootout games. The Cougars have won two of their five shootouts and are 2-1 at home and 0-2 on the road. Regina’s last three games have gone to a shootout as they are 1-2 from Nov. 11th to 18th. Overall, the home team has won six of the eight shootouts to date.
SWEEP SUCCESS
Alberta’s two losses at Saskatchewan on the weekend marks the first time since the 1996-97 season that the Golden Bears had suffered s series sweep in Canada West Hockey play. The last time Alberta suffered a series sweep came on January 3-4, 1997 when the Calgary Dinosaurs took both ends of a home-and-home series, winning 6-3 at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton on January 3rd and 4-3 at Father David Bauer Arena on January 4th.
Between the sweep by Calgary in 1996-97 and this past week’s sweep at Saskatchewan, Alberta would play a total of 136 Canada West Hockey series and register a record of 105-4-27 (wins – losses – splits). Among their 105 series victories, the Golden Bears would register 88 sweeps of opponents.
CANADA WEST HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Sophomore goaltender JEFF HARVEY of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies has been named the Canada West Hockey Player of the Week for the week ending November 19, 2006. The 6’0”, 180-pound Arts & Science student from St. Albert, Alberta made 66 saves to backstop the 10th ranked Huskies to a two-game sweep of the number one ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears at Rutherford Arena in Saskatoon on Friday-Saturday, November 17th-18th. HARVEY made 37 saves to lead Saskatchewan to a 5-3 overtime win in the series opener on Friday and then made 29 more saves in Saturday’s 3-2 victory. With the two wins, HARVEY now has an 8-3-0 record with a 3.03 goals-against average, one shutout and a .906 save percentage in 11 games. He leads the conference with his eight wins and ranks fourth in goals-against average. Overall, HARVEY is 9-5-0 with a 3.14 goals-against average and .906 save percentage in 14 games.
