Vancouver, BC - The Alberta Golden Bears showed why they are top defensive team in the Canada West conference, limiting UBC to just 16 shots on net and defeating the Thunderbirds 2-0 Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. With the victory the Golden Bears improved to 22-4-1, while UBC fell to 14-10-3.
"16 shots against this team is not enough," said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. "The game plan is to shoot. These guys don't give up a lot of opportunities. That is the third straight shutout for them and we are trying to be too cute. When you play against good teams you need to score greasy goals. We wanted to be pretty and it just didn't work."
The opening period saw neither team generate much in terms of offence as everything was kept to the outside. The best chance of the frame didn't even register as a shot as Alberta's Levko Koper found himself alone in the slot after a UBC turnover, but his shot went over top of the net. The Bears, who boast the number one power play in the conference, had one opportunity on the man advantage, but the best they could do were a couple of long shots from the point which Steven Stanford (Calgary, AB) handled easily. UBC had their best opportunity of the period just after the penalty expired. Joe Antilla (Madeira Park, BC) jumped out of the box and right in to a two on one, unfortunately his shot was stopped by Kurtis Mucha. Alberta had one more chance before the period was out, by Stanford was able to get his paddle down on a wrap around attempt from Travis Toomey. Shots in the period were 8-4 for Alberta as the game remained scoreless through 20 minutes.
The Thunderbirds got an early power play to start the second period and looked as if they would open the scoring, but Golden Bears forward Matt Meropoulis swept away a loose puck at the side of the net, just beating Brad Hoban (Victoria, BC) to the punch to keep it 0-0. Steven Stanford continued his strong play, making a number of key saves, but his biggest save came with 11 minutes left in the frame when he denied Johnny Lazo alone on the deke with a beautiful pad save. Unfortunately for the 'Birds just under two minutes later the Golden Bears would get on the board. Jesse Craige's shot went off the post and Brett Ferguson was there to bang in the rebound to make it 1-0 for the visitors. A number of times UBC had puck possession in the offensive zone, but they either missed the net or tried to make the extra pass. As a result, Alberta's lone goal was all the scoring in the period.
Alberta added to their lead in the third period. UBC turned the puck over at centre and the Golden Bears went the other way three on one. Stanford stopped the first two chances, but not the third as Levko Koper potted his 11th goal of the year to put Alberta in front 2-0 with just over 14 minutes left in regulation. The 'Birds weren't giving up though as they certainly had a couple of grade 'A' chances. Wyatt Hamilton (Cochrane, AB) whiffed on puck in front with an open net after a great feed from Nate Fleming (St.Albert, AB). Then Mucha made his best saves of the night with under seven minutes to play as he denied a Michael Wilgosh (Selkirk, MB) tip in tight and then stopped Neil Manning (Nanaimo, BC) on the rebound. Overall the Thunderbirds just didn't generate enough offensive scoring opportunities to give themselves a chance. In the end, they fell 2-0.
"We need to execute, do the things we do in practice, shoot, cycle, and get to the net and we flat out didn't do that tonight," said Dragicevic. "Give Alberta credit, they played a very good road game, but we need to worry about ourselves and get better tomorrow."
It was the third straight shutout victory for the Golden Bears and 3rd of the season for goaltender Kurtis Mucha who needed to stop just 16 shots all night. Stanford stopped 37 of the 39 shots he faced in the loss.
Alberta went 0-for-4 on the power play, while UBC was 0-1.
Both Levko Koper and Brett Ferguson finished with a goal and an assist.
With the loss, coupled with a Calgary victory and a Regina loss the Thunderbirds will finish fifth in the Canada West conference and will play in Calgary against the Dinos in the first round of the playoffs next weekend. It will be a best of three series and a rematch of last year's first round in which the Dinos won in three games.
These two teams will be at again tomorrow night in the final game of the regular season. Puck drop is 7:00 pm at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
