Edmonton, AB – Down by a pair of goals after the first period, the UBC Thunderbirds (5-7-1) couldn't recover as the No. 1 Alberta Golden Bears (12-1-0) went on to post a 4-0 win, handing the 'Birds a fifth straight loss at Edmonton's Clare Drake Arena Friday night.

Thanks to three points each (one goal, two assists) from sophomores Jason Fram, Luke Philp, and Trevor Cox, the Bears improved their home ice record to a perfect 7-0.

"I thought we came out real strong," said UBC head coach Sven Butenschon. "We made a couple mistakes and they buried them, so that was a bit unfortunate because I thought we deserved better. In the second period we just got away from our game plan. Guys started to slip into sloppy habits and tried to do too much. If you try to do too much against a team like that they make you pay."

Dylan Bredo also scored for Alberta, while second-year goalie Brendan Burke made 16 saves for his second shutout of the season.

A gorgeous toe-drag goal by Fram put Alberta up 1-0 and they added one more before the end of the first period when Lucas Nickles found Bredo with a no-look pass in the slot.

The second period saw the Bears really pull away in terms of puck possession. They peppered UBC goalie Matt Hewitt and eventually found the back of the net again when Philp sprung Cox for a breakaway goal.

The line of Cox, Philp and Cole Sanford really took over during the second period as they would tack on one more before the frame ended as Philp one-timed a Cox cross-ice pass into an open UBC net.

In the third things evened out a little bit, in large part due to some undisciplined play by the Golden Bears. They sent the T-Birds to a 5-on-3 powerplay, but were able to kill it off. The two teams were both held off the board in final period.

Between the pipes, both goalies were impressive. Hewitt held his own for UBC and when you look back at the four goals he gave up, you really couldn't fault him on any of them. In fact, if it wasn't for Hewitt, Alberta could have added on a few more in the third.

"We got to play a hard, physical game on their skilled players," said Butenschon who immediately turned his attention to getting ready for Saturday's rematch. "We're going to watch some video, we're going to learn and we're going to show it and I think the guys are going to respond."

Game two of the back-to-back will go Saturday night at 4:00 p.m. PT from Clare Drake.