Connor Hood, Golden Bears and Pandas Athletics
EDMONTON - After falling behind 2-0 early in the second period, the No. 3 Alberta Golden Bears scored six unanswered goals en route to a 6-2 win over the No. 6 Calgary Dinos, Friday night at Clare Drake Arena.
Six different Bears scored in the win, as Alberta (10-3-0) leapfrogs Calgary (9-3-1) in the Canada West standings, moving into second place. The win is also the sixth-straight for the Golden Bears, also snapping the Dinos eight-game win streak.
Taylor Cooper, Steven Owre, Trevor Cox, Curtis Miske, Sawyer Lange and Cole Sanford all scored for the Bears, while sophomore Zach Sawchenko made 15 saves for his seventh win of the season.
Tim Vanstone and Chris Rauckman lit the lamp for the Dinos, with goalie Jordan Papirny stopping 34 of the 40 shots he faced.
Despite an equal amount of scoring chances in the first, both teams remained scoreless after 20 minutes. The Golden Bears had both a slight edge in puck possession and shots, finishing the opening frame with a 7-6 lead.
It was the Dinos, however, who opened the scoring on Friday night. Vanstone took a feed from James Shearer on a cross-ice pass, ripping a one-timer past Sawchenko for his third of the season. The Dinos doubled their lead just over a minute later, as Rauckman tapped in the cross-ice feed from Ryan Gagnon.
The Golden Bears stormed back, scoring three times before the period was up. Cooper scored the first, as he beat Papirny on an abbreviated breakaway. Owre tied the game with four minutes left, blowing a bullet over a screened Papirny on a Bears powerplay.
Alberta took their first lead of the game with 0.4 seconds left in the second period, as Cox tipped in a Graeme Craig shot just before the buzzer sounded to end the second.
Miske scored his fourth of the season early in the second period, redirecting a Tyson Baillie shot into the Calgary net, giving Alberta a 4-2 lead. Lange added to it just three minutes later, as he was the last to touch the puck in the Calgary crease, before Papirny inadvertently kicked it in his own net.
Sanford added the insurance marker with just under seven minutes remaining.
The two top-ten programs will conclude their first series of the season tomorrow night, as the Dinos host the Bears at Father David Bauer Arena at 6:00 p.m..