Cougars down No. 1 Huskies, end undefeated streak at 14
January 9, 2006 PRINT THIS STORY
Can West weekly release: Cougars down No. 1 Huskies, end undefeated streak at 14
By Steve Knowles
Canada West men's hockey statistician
EDMONTON (CW) - The University of Regina Cougars started the season's second half with a bang as Canada West Hockey resumed conference play for the first time since early December with three series being played on the weekend of Friday-Saturday, January 6th and 7th.
Caine Pearpoint and Chad Anderson each scored twice and Clint Chalmers made 31 saves to lead the Cougars to a 5-1 win over the University of Saskatchewan Huskies at the Sherwood Twin Arenas in Regina on Saturday, January 7th. The loss ended the Huskies' undefeated streak at 14 games as Saskatchewan had compiled an 11-0-3 record dating back to October 21st.
Canada West Hockey resumed conference play following the Christmas break with four series as all seven of the conference's teams saw action. Saskatchewan began the season's second half the same way it ended the first half ? with a win ? as the Huskies skated to a 3-2 win over Regina at Rutherford Arena in Saskatoon on Friday, January 6th.
Both the University of Alberta Golden Bears and UBC Thunderbirds came away with four points following series sweeps in southern Alberta. The third ranked Golden Bears extended their undefeated streak in conference play to nine games with 4-2 and 3-1 wins over the University of Calgary Dinos and UBC solidified its hold on the third and final playoff position in the conference's Mountain Division with two wins over the University of Lethbridge, defeating the Pronghorns 2-1 and 4-2.
In non-conference play, the University of Manitoba Bisons took both ends of a series against the visiting SAIT Trojans, winning 5-1 and 5-2 over the first place team from the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.
Regina was the last team to defeat Saskatchewan prior to their undefeated streak as the Cougars earned a 3-1 win at Saskatoon on October 17th. Dave Adolph's number one ranked Huskies have lost only four games this season, including three in conference play, and three of the four losses have come at the hands of Blaine Sautner's Cougars. Regina also earned a 5-3 home ice win in non-conference play on September 17th. The Lethbridge Pronghorns are the only other team to defeat Saskatchewan, defeating the Huskies 2-1 in the Canada West Hockey season opener for both teams on October 7th.
Dean Beuker's goal at 7:49 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie and lifted Saskatchewan to a 3-2 win on Friday in the opening game of its home-and-home series with Regina. Beuker also earned an assist on Colin Johnson's second period goal as the Huskies scored twice in the middle frame to erase a 1-0 Regina lead. Jason Weitzel opened the scoring for Regina with a powerplay goal at 16:05 of the first period. Curtis Austring and Johnson scored in the second to give Saskatchewan a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes before Lance Herauf tied the game with the Cougars' second powerplay goal only 23 seconds into the third period.
The series shifted south to Regina on Saturday and Pearpoint put the Cougars up by two with goals at 14:31 and 17:13 of the opening period. Pearpoint's second goal came on the powerplay and proved to be the game winner as Matt Girling was the only Huskie to beat Cougars' goaltender Clint Chalmers. Girling netted a powerplay maker at 2:48 of the second period, but Chad Anderson restored the Cougars' two-goal advantage 63 seconds prior to the end of the period. Lee Schaefer and Anderson, with his second of the game, rounded out the scoring for Regina in the third period. Both Josh Garbutt and Clay Thoring had two assists as four Cougars finished the game with two points.
Beuker and Brent Twordik earned assists on the Huskies' lone goal by Girling. The assist gave Beuker a goal and two assists for the series and gives the conference scoring leader a total of 31 points on the season. He holds a nine point lead in the scoring race over Calgary's Ryan Annesley (7-15-22) and teammate Twordik (4-18-22). One of only two players to reach double figures in conference goal scoring, Beuker tops Canada West Hockey with 14 goals and is second in assists with 17. Twordik, who had two assists in Saskatchewan's 3-2 win on Friday, finished the series against the Cougars with three assists and leads the conference with 18 helpers.
With its win over Saskatchewan, Regina has moved to within five points of second place Manitoba in the Great Plains Division and have also extended their lead to five points over Lethbridge for sixth place in the conference's combined standings.
The "Battle of Alberta" saw Alberta take both games of its series at Calgary for the Golden Bears' fourth series sweep of the season. Backstopped by the goaltending of freshman Aaron Sorochan, Alberta earned 4-2 and 3-1 road wins over the Dinos. The victories extended the Golden Bears conference undefeated streak to nine games. Alberta is 7-0-2 in Canada West Hockey play from November 6h to January 7th and have moved eight points in front of second place Calgary in the Mountain Division, with the Golden Bears having two games in hand on the Dinos.
Sorochan stopped 55 of the 58 shots he faced in the series against Calgary for a .948 save percentage, earning the first-year netminder Canada West Hockey Player of the Week honors. After making 27 saves in Alberta's 4-2 win on Friday, he stopped all but one of the 29 shots he faced on Saturday as the Golden Bears completed the sweep with a 3-1 win.
Brad Tutschek and Ben Kilgour were the Golden Bears' offensive leaders in the series opener as the duo each scored three points. Tutschek scored twice and assisted on Kilgour's second period game winner, while Kilgour had two assists to go along with his decisive goal. In Saturday's win, Alberta jumped into a 2-0 first period lead on powerplay goals by Tim Krymusa and Chris Ovington, before Dylan Stanley scored in the second. Krymusa's goal was his second of the series as he also scored in the series opener.
Ben Thomson had two assists, including one on Ovington's first period game winner, and the third-year forward finished the weekend series with three helpers as he also had an assist on Friday. Ovington and team captain Gavin McLeod had two point games in Saturday's win as the two fifth-year defencemen finished with 1-1-2 and 0-2-2, respectively.
Wes Reid was the only Dino to beat Sorochan in the series finale on Saturday, tipping Travis Friedley's point shot over Sorochan with only 9:03 left in the game. Alex Lalonde (SHG) and Jarret Lukin accounted for the Calgary scoring on Friday. Scott Talbot started both games for Calgary and has now started the last eight games for the Dinos.
Entering their series at Lethbridge, the UBC Thunderbirds held a slim two-point lead over the Pronghorns in the race for third place and the last playoff position in the Mountain Division standings. Following 2-1 and 4-2 victories, UBC is now six points in front of Lethbridge with 10 games remaining in the conference schedule.
In the series opener the Thunderbirds held the advantage throughout the majority of the game, scoring once in each of the first two periods and holding a 29-10 advantage in shots on goal through 40 minutes. Defencemen Brad Zanon and Tito Kamel scored for UBC, while Jason Roberts ruined Gerry Festa's shutout bid with a powerplay goal only 47 seconds from the final horn.
After starting the series poorly, Lethbridge looked to regain some ground in the series finale on Saturday. The Pronghorns came out in the first period and took the game to UBC, outshooting the Thunderbirds 16-4 and scoring the games' first goal. Charlie Mattersdorfer's powerplay goal at 19:17 was the only shot to beat Festa in the UBC net.
The freshman netminder held the fort for UBC in the opening 20 minutes of play and his team responded in the second period, scoring twice to take the lead. Peter Hay and Nick Marach were the goal scorers for UBC in the second period and Zanon increased the lead to 3-1 with is second goal of the series 8:43 into the third period. After Shaun Norrie brought Lethbridge to within a goal at 10:26, Marach sealed the win with his second goal of the game into an empty net at 19:06. Marach added an assist on Zanon's game winning goal to finish the night with 2-1-3 and he led all UBC scorers with four points in the series as he assisted on Zanon's goal in Friday's win. Peter Hay had three assists for UBC, with two of the helpers coming on Saturday, including one on Zanon's game winner.
With the two wins, UBC is now 7-10-1 in Canada West Hockey conference play and the Thunderbirds improved their overall record to 11-11-1, reaching the .500 mark for the first time since November 12th when they were 8-8-1.
Despite the losses, Lethbridge still remains in the hunt for a berth in the post-season. The Pronghorns are six points behind UBC for the final playoff position in the Mountain Division and five points behind Regina in the conference's combined standings. If they were to finish ahead of Regina at the end of the conference schedule, they would be awarded the third playoff position in the Great Plains Division over the Cougars.
The first step towards such a scenario comes this week as Lethbridge takes to the road for two games against the Cougars in Regina.
In Winnipeg, the Manitoba Bisons swept the visiting SAIT Trojans 5-1 and 5-2 in a non-conference series at Max Bell Arena. Kevin Saurette scored two powerplay goals and Dustin Hughes, Nick Cowan and Jon Cara each had a goal and an assist in the Bisons 5-1 win in the series opener. Saurette added a shorthanded goal in Saturday's win to finish the weekend with three goals.
Warren McCutcheon scored twice to lead the Manitoba offence on Saturday, while Jamie Muswagon, with his first goal of the season, and David McDonald (PPG) added singles. Paul Deniset had two assists in both games for Manitoba.
Krister Toews earned both wins for Manitoba and did not allow a goal in the series. Toews, who evened his season record at 13-13-1 with the victories, started both games and left without allowing a goal in each game as he split the goaltending chores with Billy Flett. He faced nine shots on Friday and stopped them all before being relieved by Flett at 11:15 of the second period with the Bisons leading 3-0. On Saturday, Manitoba held a 3-0 lead after two periods of play and Flett was perfect on 24 shots before giving way to Flett for the second straight outing.
Former Saskatchewan Huskie Cale Jordison played goal for SAIT in both games. Jordison played 17 games for the Huskies in 2004-05, including 10 in conference play, before transferring to the ACAC school.
Manitoba resumes conference play this week as the Bisons visit Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton for a two-game series against Alberta. It is one of three series being played on the weekend of January 13th to 15th. In other series on Friday and Saturday, Saskathewan hosts Calgary and Lethbridge visits Regina.
CANADA WEST HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Freshman goaltender AARON SOROCHAN of the University of Alberta Golden Bears has been named the Canada West Hockey Player of the Week for the week ending January 8, 2006. The 6'0", 178-pound Open Studies student from Edmonton, Alberta allowed only three goals against and registered a .948 save percentage in backstopping the Golden Bears to a two-game road sweep of the University of Calgary Dinos on Friday-Saturday, January 6th and 7th. SOROCHAN made 27 saves in Alberta's series opening 4-2 win on Friday at Father David Bauer Arena and the 21-year-old netminder then stopped all but one of the 29 shots he faced in Saturday's 3-1 victory. With the two wins, SOROCHAN improved his record to 8-2-1 in conference play and lowered his goals-against average to 2.23, the second lowest GAA in the conference. The two wins also extended the freshman's personal undefeated streak to eight games as he is 7-0-1 from November 18th to January 7th. Overall, SOROCHAN is 11-4-1 with a 2.29 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
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Source:
Steve Knowles
Canada West men's hockey statistician
