EDMONTON - Tyson Laventure scored twice in a dominant 6-3 Alberta Golden Bears victory over their crosstown rivals the MacEwan Griffins Friday evening at Clare Drake Arena.

Alberta scored early and often in this one, jumping to a 5-0 lead midway through the second period and never looking back. Laventure was joined by Connor McClennon, Tyler Preziuso, Sean Tschigerl, and Mason Ward in what was an impressive showing even for the top scoring team in the Canada West. Marc Lajoie added three assists, while defensive partner Aidan De La Gorgendiere had two assists to grab and extend his CW-lead in the category.

Alberta is now 8-1-0 on the year and sits at the top of the East Division and the conference. The Griffins move to 4-5-0 and currently sit third in the division. The visitors saw goals from Marc Pasemko and Ethan Sundar in the loss, while netminder Eric Ward played well in relief of Carson Ironside making 23/25 saves.

The Bears could not have gotten off to a better start in this one, scoring on their opening two shots of the game within three minutes of the opening faceoff to grab an early two goal lead. The first goal was Laventure's who sprung through the Griffins defensive pairing and tucked it five-hole on Ironside for his second of the year. No more than a minute later McClennon beat the Griffins netminder short side off a De La Gorgendiere pass to extend the lead.

Alberta was far from finished in the opening frame though, as a mid-period powerplay proved fruitful for Preziuso who made no mistake on a cross-crease one-timer for his third of the season to inflate the lead to 3-0. It would then be remiss to count the CW-leading scorer Sean Tschigerl out, and he put home a grade-A chance with five minutes remaining in the period to join the offensive onslaught with his seventh of the young season. Ironside would be replaced by Eric Ward after the score in what was a disastrous first period for the Griffins. They were outshot 13-5, outscored 4-0, and if that was not enough they also led the Bears 3-to-1 in penalties.

The second period was comparatively tame in the opening ten minutes, seeing little action until an Alberta powerplay, ranked 1st in the league, went to work and Laventure capitalized for his second of the game to give the Bears a 5-0 lead. However, the Griffins finally showed signs of life off the ensuing faceoff where they rushed into the Alberta zone and Pasemko tucked in his team-leading sixth of the season to get MacEwan on the board. With four minutes left in the frame and on the powerplay they would add another off the stick of Sundar, his first of the season, to head into the intermission having cut Alberta's lead down to 5-2.

Mason Ward opened the scoring in the third period, wiring a wrister past Ward for his second goal of the campaign that extended the Bears lead to 6-2. The Griffins would respond late in the frame, with Scott scoring on a powerplay to trim the final score to 6-3. MacEwan certainly had the momentum in the third, outshooting the Bears 9-6, and will hope some of that carries over in their rematch tomorrow evening.