Bears overtake Huskies

Dogs 4-4 in January, fall out of first place

— ZARY

Bears 3, Huskies 1
By no means is the University of Saskatchewan men’s hockey team finished, but it remains a work in progress after getting swept by the Alberta Golden Bears during the weekend in Edmonton.
The Huskies will surely fall from No. 1 in Canadian Interuniversity Sport when the new rankings are released this week.
“As (assistant trainer) Sheldon Wright says we’re going to have to go to Co-op Hardware and pick up a quart of finish because it’s been lacking for the last four weeks and I’m not sure why,” U of S coach Dave Adolph said after his team fell to 15-6-3 with a second-straight 3-1 loss to Alberta.
“We’re 4-4 since Christmas. The more we panic about it, the more we’re going to squeeze our sticks and get uptight.”
Alberta (16-4-2) has overtaken the U of S in the Canada West conference standings. The Bears have six games left in the regular season. The Dogs have four games left and just one at home.
Saskatchewan has dropped three in a row.
“Friday night we didn’t play very well and we were really undisciplined and yet had about four chances in the third period to salt it away, but didn’t,” Adolph said.
“We underachieved again (Saturday). We didn’t play great, but we played a lot better. We had a breakaway and some outstanding power-play chances that didn’t go in. That’s kind of what the story has been.”
Joff Kehler, who scored an insurance goal for the Golden Bears on Friday, scored a pair of goals Saturday at Clare Drake Arena. Perry Johnson scored Alberta’s other goal. Brent Twordik replied for Saskatchewan, which has clinched first in the Great Plains Division.
Rookie goalie Aaron Sorochan came up big for a second straight night in Alberta’s net, stopping 26 shots. Jeff Harvey, who entered the weekend 8-1-1 in Canada West play, stopped 25 shots, but lost for a second straight night.
After a scoreless first period, Kehler scored on the power play to give Alberta a 1-0 lead at 6:11 of the second period. Twordik scored from the slot when he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Matt Girling with just under five minutes to play in the second.
Just 47 seconds after Twordik tied the game, however, Johnson scored on a screened shot.
Later in the second period Sorochan made a sliding glove stop, point-blank, on Curtis Austring.
Twordik had a breakaway 6:30 into the third and again Sorochan came up with the save.
With 9:56 remaining, Kehler scored on a rebound.
The Bears were 1-for-5 on the power play. The Huskies were 0-5.
“We were extremely disciplined Saturday. We really outplayed them the first two periods in terms of work ethic and being physical,” Adolph said. “Then it’s 1-all and they get a goal up over Harvey’s shoulder that he didn’t see. He just wristed it, hoping it would go towards the net. They got three breaks; we didn’t get any. That’s the way it goes.
“Am I uptight about it? Not at all. Did we show signs that we’re coming out of it? Absolutely. We played better Saturday night than we did against UBC (last weekend), but we still haven’t played well, like ourselves, since Christmas.”
BREAKAWAYS: The University of Alberta has announced plans to create an annual men’s hockey tournament pitting two of the top NCAA programs against its Golden Bears and another Canada West team. Most of the details remain in the works and the tournament likely won’t begin until 2007 at the earliest, but the gauntlet has been dropped. “We are putting out the challenge to NCAA schools to come to our turf for a change,” said Dale Schulha, U of A athletics director. “I have complete confidence in our hockey club that we can play with anybody in North America.”