Vancouver – The No. 1 ranked Alberta Golden Bears welcome the UBC Thunderbirds men's hockey squad to Edmonton this weekend in a best-of-three series in the Canada West semi-finals. UBC is fresh off a stellar first round series which saw them defeat the Saskatchewan Huskies in three games while Alberta had a bye through to the second round after taking top spot in the Canada West regular season.
Game 1 – 6 p.m. (PT) Friday, February 28
Game 2 – 5 p.m. (PT) Saturday, March 1
Game 3 – 5 p.m. (PT) Sunday, March 2 (if necessary)
"Our team has a lot of confidence heading into the weekend, we have been playing in playoff-like games all second half of the regular season," adds head coach Milan Dragicevic ahead of this weekend. "It doesn't matter who we play, we just focus on what we can control."
After sneaking into the playoffs as the sixth seed, the UBC Thunderbirds took it to the third seeded, and No. 9 ranked Saskatchewan Huskies last weekend taking two of three in Saskatoon including a 5-0 victory, and a 6-4 win which sealed the series for UBC. The Thunderbirds were lethal on the man-advantage ripping off a 43.8% efficiency rating, going 7-for-16 in round one, including a four power play goal performance on Sunday. UBC also managed to be perfect on the penalty kill, shutting out the Huskies on all 11 opportunities.
Steven Stanford was arguably the performer of the first-round series against Saskatchewan shutting out the Huskies in game one before a stellar 57-save performance in game three, backstopping the Thunderbirds to the upset. Through the first round of the playoffs, Stanford has a 2.68 GAA and a 0.930 SV% including first-star accolades in the decisive game against the Huskies.
Brad Hoban currently leads the Canada West in playoff scoring with six points highlighted by a hat trick performance Sunday evening helping the Thunderbirds earn a spot in the Canada West semi-finals.
Geordie Wudrick and
Anthony Bardaro have been instrumental in the team's playoff run both averaging over a point-per-game, each with four points, good for second and third, respectively, in overall playoff scoring. Wudrick had both game-winning goals in the Thunderbirds victories over the Huskies on the weekend.
"This is a huge opportunity for our program to showcase our players in the playoffs," added Dragicevic. "We are peaking at the right time and as a team feel that we can beat anyone."
With a 25-2-1 record during the regular season and a first-round bye, the Alberta Golden Bears enter the weekend as the No. 1 ranked team in Canada after topping the Canada West standings during the regular season. Alberta, the 13-time national champions, took all four games against the Thunderbirds this season by a margin of 20-10, scoring four or more goals on each of those occasions. The Golden Bears have yet to lose a regulation game in 2014, having accumulated a 13-1-0 record at home during the entirety of the regular season, and will be two-weeks removed from their last game come this weekend.
Alberta had the nation's top-ranked power play during the season with a 31.9% success rating while also having a dominant penalty kill, at just over 90%, good for second in the nation and tops in the Canada West.
Fifth-year veteran Sean Ringrose has been the most dangerous offensive threat this season for the Golden Bears setting a career-high in points with 36, which had him in a tie for second in the Canada West in that department. Ringrose was the WHL graduate of the month for January and ended the season on a 14-game point streak. Alberta had five of the top 10 scorers in the Canada West during the regular season en route to being the highest scoring team in the country averaging over five goals-per-game.
Alberta is equally as strong on the back-end with stellar goaltending from Kurtis Mucha and Luke Siemens, who had more or less split the share of games during the regular season combining for the lowest goals-against-average in the CIS. Mucha was the 2012-2013 CIS goaltender of the year and prior to his university career, set numerous records in the WHL as well as playing several stints with ECHL franchises. Siemens, in his first year with the Bears, is a veteran of four WHL teams and has collected 11 wins in 12 starts this season but should give way to Mucha in the series versus the Thunderbirds.
The winner of this weekend's semi-final series advances to the Canada West final with a berth to the CIS championships on the line.
All games will be played at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton, with action being streamed on
Canada West TV.
