|
Men’s hockey team steals a point from top ranked Golden Bears
by Alexis Vanbuskirk
the Carillon
On November 21, the Cougar men’s hockey team hit the ice against the top team in the Canadian West conference, the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
A battle between both teams in the first game proved to be great entertainment. Both the Cougars and the Bears put one goal on the scoreboard in the first period. Adam Fraser was credited with the Cougars’ goal for the first period while getting help from Donnie Kinney and Ryan Pollock.
The Bears dominated in the second period, scoring two more goals while Chad Anderson, assisted by Blair Simpson and Lance Kopan, scored one goal for the Cougars.
With much determination and enthusiasm, the Cougars pushed for a third goal and it came in the third period thanks to an unassisted Kurtis Dulle. They held off the Bears for the last three minutes and 49 seconds allowing for a tied game. The Cougars prepared for the game on Saturday. They knew there was going to be a battle.
The tie was the first time any team had taken a point away from the Golden Bears this season, which was quite an accomplishment for the Cougars.
On November 22, the battle was fully forced. The Bears seemed to dominate from the first face-off. The Cougars did play very well but it did not seem to be enough for that night. It was a highly energetic game from both sides of the ice.
Cougar player Pat Baum says, “We came to this rink ready to go but we just did not get the breaks we needed.”
That’s the truth. The Cougars struggled keeping the puck in the Golden Bears’ zone. Great goaltending from both ends demonstrated fierce saves and lucky breaks.
A few given-up pucks and incomplete passes allowed the Bears to collect ten shots on net while the Cougars collected seven.
The second period was much more exciting. There was a lot of good physical contact and a few close calls for the Cougar team as they almost scored several times and almost got scored on several times.
Only three minutes into the period, on a power play, the Bears got their first goal from Ryan Wade and Kevin Marsh. Wade got his second goal of the game halfway through the period assisted by Kris Knoblauch and the goalie, Dustin Schwartz, while they were short-handed. This ended the second period scoring, giving the Bears a two-goal lead heading into the third.
That lead turned into three goals 31 seconds into the third period. For his natural power play hat trick, Ben Thomson and Kris Knoblauch assisted Ryan Wade.
The Bears scored on another power play. The fourth goal of the night was awarded to Kevin Marsh unassisted. There were many penalties that occurred in the game that gave the Bears their opportunities to score.
Pat Baum, along with teammate Kinney, says, “We had to stay out of the penalty box, they had a really good power play team.”
The Cougars were not the only team in the penalty box. It seemed that a new type of “slapstick” was used that night and it wasn’t the type used in a comedian’s act. A fan could hear the slashing of shin pads from across the ice.
As tempers flared from missed calls, the game got rough and the Cougars seemed to struggle. Blind passes were intercepted and penalties that shouldn’t have occurred did.
The Cougars hope that for the rest of the season they play like a team, and make it into the top two spots of the Canada West conference. “We also hope to host playoff series because we have a good playoff run,” says Donnie Kinney.
|
