Canada West Hockey Release MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2007
SASKATCHEWAN SKATES TO LONE SWEEP OF THE WEEK
HUSKIES DAVE ADOLPH NEARING COACHING MILESTONE
ALBERTA - SASKATCHEWAN SERIES HIGHLIGHTS UPCOMING WEEK
The fourth ranked Saskatchewan Huskies were the lone team to earn a sweep in Canada West Hockey play on the weekend as they took both ends of their series against the Lethbridge Pronghorns, winning 3-2 in overtime and 7-0 on Friday-Saturday, January 12th-13th. In other conference play, the second ranked Alberta Golden Bears split its series in Winnipeg with the Manitoba Bisons, winning 3-2 and losing 4-1. At Vancouver, the UBC Thunderbirds dropped the series opener 4-3 to the visiting Regina Cougars before rallying for a 6-4 win in the finale that saw both games played at General Motors Place.
With the two victories over Lethbridge, Saskatchewan has moved to within four points of Alberta in the Canada West Hockey combined standings. Alberta tops the conference and the Mountain Division standings with 31 points, while Saskatchewan sits atop the Great Plains Division with 27. The two division leaders will meet in a decisive series this coming weekend at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.
Not only did the two wins move Saskatchewan closer to first place in the conference, they also moved Huskies head coach Dave Adolph to within two wins of second place on the conference’s list of career coaching victories. Following the series sweep of Lethbridge, Adolph’s career Canada West Hockey coaching record stands at 243-207-46. Now in his 18th season behind the bench since beginning as head coach of Lethbridge in 1989-90, Adolph is two wins shy of tying former Calgary Dinos head coach, George Kingston for second place on the conference’s all-time wins list. Kingson compiled a 245-128-0 record in 16 seasons with Calgary between 1968-69 and 1987-88.
CANADA WEST HOCKEY CAREER COACHING WINS
(Conference Wins As of January 19, 2007)
COACH TEAM GC W L T PCT.
1. Clare Drake Alberta 525 377 145 3 .721
2. George Kingston Calgary 373 245 128 0 .657
3. Dave Adolph Lethbridge 112 32 72 8 .321
Saskatchewan 384 211 135 38 .599
TOTALS 496 243 207 46 .536
Adolph also finds himself only four games shy of his 500th career conference game coached. Entering this weekend’s series at Alberta, Adolph, who is in his 14th season with the Huskies since taking over the coaching duties at his alma mater in 1993-94, has been behind the bench as a head coach 496 times in conference play. Only Alberta’s Clare Drake has coached more conference games with 525 in 28 seasons behind the Golden Bears’ bench. Adolph is the conference’s active leader in games coached, wins, losses and ties.
Wins number 242 and 243 for Adolph came in Saskatchewan’s sweep of Lethbridge. Defenceman Derek Endicott’s powerplay goal 1:23 into overtime lifted the Huskies to a 3-2 win over the visiting Pronghorns on Friday night at Rutherford Arena in Saskatoon. The teams traded goals in the first two periods with Keegan McAvoy and Curtis Austring scoring for Saskatchewan and Steve Zmudczynski and Andrew Courtney replying for Lethbridge. It was the third consecutive game between the two teams that went to overtime with Saskatchewan holding a 2-1 advantage in the extra session. The Huskies and Pronghorns each won in overtime when the teams met in Lethbridge back in November. The Huskies won the first game of that series 5-4 in an overtime shootout on November 4th, before the Pronghorns earned a 5-4 win, and a series split, on Mark Shefchyk’s goal 3:43 into overtime on November 5th.
Saturday’s finale wasn’t close as the Huskies completed the sweep with a 7-0 victory. Brett Novak tallied four times to lead Saskatchewan to the victory. Novak and Mason Wallin each scored twice in the opening period as Saskatchewan opened the game with a 4-0 lead and then added three more goals in the second period as Novak completed the hat trick with two more goals and Matt Girling had one. Three of Novak’s four goals came on the powerplay and Wallin and Girling added single goals with the man advantage as Saskatchewan went 5-13 on the powerplay.
Lethbridge freshman forward Mark Shefchyk saw his 14-game scoring streak come to an end as he was held without a point in both games of the series at Saskatchewan. The freshman forward, who is second in the conference scoring race with 12-20-32 in 18 games, had scored 9-18-27 during his streak from October 20th to January 6th. Shefchyk has scored points in 15 of his 18 conference games this season.
Shefchyk’s streak was the second lengthy scoring streak by a Pronghorn to come to an end in recent weeks. Last week in Lethbridge’s 6-5 overtime shootout win over Alberta on January 5th, Shaun Norrie saw his 12-game scoring streak halted by the Golden Bears. During the streak Norrie scored 6-10-16 from October 20th to December 3rd.
In Winnipeg, the Manitoba line of Richard Wood, Dustin Hughes and Chris Falloon proved to be a thorn in the side of the Alberta Golden Bears all weekend, as the trio combined to score four of the Bisons six goals and combine for a total of 12 points in the series split.
Both Hughes and Falloon, who are tied for the Manitoba scoring lead with 22 points, scored a goal and an assist in the series opener on Friday night and linemate Wood added two assists as the Bisons fell 3-2. The trio then led the way in Saturday’s 4-1 victory as Falloon had his second two point-game with the game winning goal and his second assist of the series. Hughes led the way with three assists and Wood scored once for the Bisons. Hughes finished the series with 1-4-5, while Falloon netted 2-2-4 and Wood had 1-2-3.
Ben Kilgour had two assists for the Golden Bears in Friday’s 3-2 win and the Alberta forward has moved into first place in the Canada West Hockey scoring race. Kilgour tops the conference with 14-19-33 and is second in both goals and assists. The third-year forward also tops the conference in overall scoring with 16-25-41 in 25 games.
Kilgour combined with linemates Jesse Gimblett and Ian McDonald to lead Alberta to the win. Gimblett scored once and added an assist on McDonald’s game wnning goal. Richard Hamula also scored once for Alberta, while Golden Bears team captain Harlan Anderson had two assists. Tim Krymusa was the only Golden Bear to score in the series finale, beating Manitoba netminder Kriter Toews on the powerplay.
Caine Pearpoint’s unassisted goal 12 minutes into the third period broke a 3-3 tie and led the Regina Cougars to a 4-3 win over UBC on Friday night. The teams traded goals through the first two periods with the score tied at 2-2 and 3-3 at the intermissions before Pearpoint netted the lone goal of the final frame for his third game winning goal.
Shane Emmons, James Ardelan and Blair Stengler scored single goals for the Cougars and Clint Chalmers made 33 saves to earn the victory as Regina was outshot 36-24. Darrell May was the top point getter for UBC with a goal and two assists , while Brad Zanon scored once and added an assist. Mitch Bartley also scored for UBC.
Regina looked like it would continue where it left off on Friday night, with a three goal first period on Saturday. Jason Weitzel scored twice in the game’s first six minutes and Jordan McGillivray made it 3-0 with a powerplay goal at 19:20. Ryan Cruse and Jesse Matlock each had two assists in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Down by three, UBC did not fold. The Thunderbirds rallied to take the lead with five unanswered goals of their own in the second period. Zanon began the comeback with his first of three powerplay goals at 3:26 and after Stephane Gervais brought the Thunderbirds to within a goal at 8:48, Zanon completed his hat trick with goals 18 seconds apart. Zanon tied the score at 11:53 and then gave UBC its first lead of the game by completing his first career hat trick at 12:11. Marc Desloges made it 5-3 at 13:57 with the game winning goal. Al five UBC goals were scored on the powerplay as the Thunderbirds went five for seven with the man advantage in the second period.
Weitzel completed his second hat trick of the season and brought the Cougars to within a goal with his third goal at 11:03 of the third period. The fifth-year senior leads Canada West Hockey with 16 goals in 19 games and has a conference-high 17 in 25 games overall.
Lance Morrison sealed the victory for UBC with the Thunderbirds sixth powerplay goal at 19:03. The six powerplay goals by UBC is a conference high for the season. Stephane Gervais (1-2-3) and Darrell May (0-3-3) each had three points for the Thunderbirds in the victory. It was the second consecutive three-point game for May, who had 1-2-3 in Friday’s loss.
Three series are on the schedule for Friday-Saturday, January 19th-20tth. The highlight of the coming week will feature a match-up of top ten teams as Alberta hosts Saskatchewan at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton. The Golden Bears hold a four-point advantage in the standings over Saskatchewan in the battle for home ice advantage in the post-season. Saskatchewan earned two one-goal victories over Alberta when the teams met at Rutherford Arena in Saskatoon in November, winning 5-4 in overtime and 3-2 on November 17th-18th. The Golden Bears have three wins over the Huskies this season in non-conference play, most recently, a 4-1 win at Lloydminster, Alberta on December 31st.
Calgary returns to play this weekend when the Dinos travel to Regina for a two-game set with the Cougars and Lethbridge hosts Manitoba.
CANADA WEST HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior defenceman BRAD ZANON of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds has been named the Canada West Hockey Player of the Week for the week ending January 14, 2007. The 6’2”, 205-pound Arts student from Port Moody, British Columbia scored five points for UBC in a series split with the University of Regina Cougars on Friday-Saturday, January 12th-13h at General Motors Place. ZANON scored once and added a powerplay assist in UBC’s 4-3 loss in the series opener on Friday night and then scored three second period powerplay goals on Saturday to spark a UBC rally that saw the Thunderbirds score five times to overcome a 3-0 deficit on their way to a 6-4 win and the series split.
All three of ZANON’s goals came in the second period and marked the first hat trick by a Thunderbirds defenceman since Jay Rumley scored three times in a 7-6 overtime loss versus the University of Calgary Dinosaurs on January 9, 1981. It was also the first hat trick by any UBC player since Dustin Paul netted three goals on January 21, 2005 in a 5-2 victory over the University of Regina Cougars. The 23-year-old blueliner set a UBC record for most powerplay goals in a game and tied the Canada West Hockey conference record for most powerplay goals in a period. ZANON becomes the fourth player in conference history to score three powerplay goals in a period.
With his five point weekend, ZANON moves into second place in scoring among Canada West Hockey defencemen in both conference and overall scoring. In 20 conference games, the third-year defenceman has 10-8-18 and leads conference blueliners with his 10 goals. Overall, he has scored 11-11-22 in 23 games.
