Edmonton, AB - The #1 ranked Alberta Golden Bears defeated the UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey team 5-3 Friday night in Edmonton, AB. With the win, the Golden Bears remain perfect on the season improving to 7-0-0, while the Thunderbirds fall to 1-4-0.
Special teams was the story of the game as UBC finished 3-for-4 on the power play, while Edmonton went 2-for-4. Tied 2-2 heading into the final frame, Brett Ferguson scored his second of the season on the man advantage to give Alberta a 3-2 lead. Jesse Craige added to the lead just over seven minutes, beating Matt Hewitt to put the Golden Bears in front 4-2. However, the Thunderbirds responded just 15 seconds later as Anthony Bardaro scored UBC's third power play goal of the game to cut the lead to 4-3.
The Thunderbirds pressed in the final minutes, but were unable to score the equalizer. Levko Koper scored an empty netter to seal the victory as Alberta won 5-3.
Cole Wilson opened the scoring for UBC just 4:46 into the first period on the power play. Jordan Rowley potted his fifth goal of the year to tie the game at 1-1 and then Thomas Carr scored on the power play to put Alberta in front 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Nick Buonassisi scored his team leading fourth goal of the year just 49 seconds into the second period to tie the game at 2-2. That is how things stood after two periods of play.
"As a group we need to be mentally tougher," said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. "We made mistakes at crucial times and it cost us. We need to be more discipline. Four stick penalties are things that we can control. On the positive, we scored three power play goals and Matt Hewitt was excellent in net."
Hewitt stopped 32 of the 36 shots he faced. Kurtis Mucha stopped 19 of 22 shots to earn the win in net.
Bardaro and Wilson each finished the night with one goal and one assist. Jesse Craige led all scorers with a goal and two assists for the Golden Bears.
These two teams will play again tomorrow night at 5:00 pm PST.
