VANCOUVER – The Alberta Golden Bears took a 3-2 lead midway through the second period and nursed it home adding an empty netter to take a 1-0 series lead Friday night over the UBC Thunderbirds in the best-of-three Canada West Final at Clare Drake Arena.
While the T-Birds quickly responded to the Bears' first two goals of the game, UBC wasn't able to generate much once Alberta scored what turned out to be the game winner on Luc Smith's second goal of the night.
"I just don't think we had a shooting mindset, we complicated the game a bit, pretty disappointed altogether in that third period," said UBC Head Coach Sven Butenschon after his team managed just one shot on goal in the final 20 minutes. "If you bring your best game in the Canada West Final and you lose, more power to the other team. But I don't think we were near our best today. Anything in their zone was too easy, we just didn't put pucks on net and crash the net for rebounds."
The capacity crowd in the old barn were on their feet early as Ryan Hughes opened scoring just 1:47 after puck drop with a wrister over
Rylan Toth's shoulder.
UBC was able to recover from the less than ideal start, settling their game down while Chris Douglas tied things up less than six minutes later.
Jake Kryski picked up the loose puck behind the Bears' net, skated out to the right faceoff circle and fired a quick shot on net. Nick Schneider made the save, but Douglas pounced on the rebound and backhanded it in for his second of the playoffs.
The Bears had a tremendous chance to reclaim the lead later in the frame when Daneel Lategan was sprung on a breakaway, but Toth made a right pad stop to keep the game level heading into the second.
"I thought our first period was probably our best period of the night, except for the first five minutes where we were just a bit of a deer in the headlights," added Butenschon. "But once we caught our breath I thought we dominated the last 15 minutes, but unfortunately we couldn't build off that momentum."
Alberta re-took the lead at the 9:28 mark of the second when Smith converted his fourth of the post-season on the power play. After taking a quick cross-ice feed from Grayson Pawlenchuk, Matt Fonteyne released a one-timer that was perfectly tipped by Smith at the top of the crease.
Once again, the T-Birds responded, this time needing just 30 seconds to tie things up when Tian Rask scored his first playoff goal in the blue and gold. Matt Revel wristed the puck from along the goal line, bouncing it off Schneider's shoulder. The Alberta netminder wasn't able to grab the rebound which bounced right into the slot for Rask who backhanded the puck in.
The Bears once again went in front with six-and-a-half minutes remaining in the second when Smith potted his second of the game, capitalizing on a turnover that saw the puck land right on his stick.
With 56 seconds remaining in the third and Toth on the bench for the extra attacker, Eric Florchuk hit the empty net from his own zone to seal the deal and put the Bears one win away from a 56th Canada West championship.
Despite some good looks on the power play, the T-Birds finished the night 0-for-3, while the Bears scored once on four chances.
Set to play in their second elimination game of the Canada West playoffs in game two Saturday, the 'Birds know they just have to get back to the basics, the things which have given them success all year long.
"It's two good teams going at it, we knew it was not going to be easy, we still like our depth. We like to play everybody and get everybody involved, everybody has a role to play. That's what we've stuck with since the beginning of the year. We have to stick to the process. If we have to win on a Sunday night in the third period or overtime, that's fine too."
Puck drop for game two of the Canada West Final goes at 6:00 p.m. PT Saturday at Clare Drake Arena. The game will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
