Hockey: CW Weekly Update

Here's a look at the weekend that was in the Canada West.

The Saskatchewan Huskies continued their early season struggles, dropping another pair of games this weekend in Edmonton against Alberta. The Golden Bears managed a pair of wins over their rivals from Saskatoon, with a 6-4 win Friday night and a 4-1 win Saturday night to improve their record to 5-0-1 on the season. The Bears took the final six penalties of the game Friday night, allowing the Huskies to score two PP goals late to make things close. Ian Barteaux led the charge for the Green and Gold Friday with a pair of goals. A skirmish at the end of the second period saw a total of eight penalties handed out, including a pair of game misconducts to Bears forward Eric Hunter and Huskies netminder Jeff Harvey who both saw their nights end early. Saturday night Travis Yonkman got the start for Alberta after Real Cyr picked up the win Friday, and Yonkman was outstanding Saturday night in what was his best performance as a Bears making 37 saves. Chad Klassen, the leagues leading scorer notched a hat trick Saturday night to help the Bears secure the sweep. Dave Adolph's team now has a 1-5 record, which is last in the conference. Alberta hosts Manitoba this coming weekend while Saskatchewan will welcome Lethbridge for a pair of games in Saskatoon.

In Lethbridge, the Pronghorns picked up a pair of wins over the UBC T-Birds who entered the weekend ranked #9 in the CIS top-10. Friday night the 'Horns were lifted offensively by first-year forward Adam Chorneyko who had a five point night, scoring two goals and adding three assists to help the Pronghorns pick up the 6-4 win. Lethbridge's power play was critical Friday night as well, as the Pronghorns went 4/8 with the man advantage with one of Chorneyko's goals coming on the PP. The two teams combined for 24 penalties Friday night. Saturday was a tighter contest as both teams limited the march to the penalty box, as the Pronghorns were able to earn a hard fought 2-1 win as Lethbridge goalie Scott Bowles was the game's first star after a spectacular 43 save performance to make sure his team picked up the two game series sweep. UBC now enters their bye week.

The Calgary Dinos were able to fly into Winnipeg and hand the Manitoba Bisons their first loss of the season on home ice Friday night, defeating the Bisons by a score of 2-1 as Jerrid Sauer and Dan Ehrman scored for the Dinos, while Dustin Butler was excellent in between the pipes for Mark Howell`s team. Saturday night saw an unfamiliar face in net for the Herd as Jesse Deckert made his start of the season in net for Manitoba. Steve Christie had started the Bisons first seven games of the season, and started every regular season and playoff contest last season for the Bisons before giving way to Deckert Saturday night. Deckert was solid stopping 32 of 34 shots Saturday night, as the Dinos and Bisons played to a 2-2 tie through 65 minutes, and needed a shootout to crown a winner. It took five shooters a side before a winner could be crowned, as Jared Walker would score the shootout winner for the Bisons as they managed to pick up a weekend split. Manitoba is tied for first in the conference with Alberta at 11 points, with Alberta holding two games in hand on the Herd. Calgary will host Regina this coming weekend after the Cougars had the bye this weekend.