EDMONTON - Trailing 2-1 early in the second period, the Golden Bears scored four unanswered, including three in the span of three minutes, to storm back and earn a 5-2 win over Trinity Western on Saturday.
Unlike Friday's dominant win over the Spartans, Saturday's was much closer and feistier. Alberta outshot TWU 38-28, with the teams combining for 22 penalties and 68 penalty minutes.Â
Sean Tschigerl,
Brett Hyland,
Alex Thacker,
Josh Prokop, and
Sam Popowich scored for the Bears, as they sweep improves their record to 20-6-0. Rookie Bear
Tyler Palmer made 26 saves, earning his 13th win of the season.Â
Luke Spadafora and Artem Hrabovetskyi scored for the visitors, whose record drops to 3-20-3. While it won't show in the stats sheet or in their record, Saturday's performance from TWU was a strong one, as they held their own with the heavily favoured Bears for a majority of the contest. Leon Sommer was a big reason for it, making 33 saves in the loss.
It was the Spartans who got on the board first, with Spadafora taking advantage of a turnover in the corner from Bears defenceman
Marc Lajoie. After getting fed the puck in front, Spadafora out-waited Palmer, before sliding the puck far side into the open cage.Â
Peppering Sommer in the TWU net, Alberta finally found the equalizer from Tschigerl, who one-timed in a pass from Hyland on a five-on-three powerplay.Â
Hrabovetskyi restored the TWU lead early in the second, slipping a shot through Palmer's five-hole one a one-man rush.Â
Following a lengthy timeout to fix the TWU crease, the Bears seemed to wake up. Thacker, Hyland, and Prokop all scored in a three-minute span late in the second, giving the Bears a two-goal lead. Prokop's goal was his fourth of the weekend after scoring three on Friday night.Â
Palmer was excellent down the stretch, making 22 saves in the second and third periods to keep TWU at bay. Popowich sealed the win with his second of the season late in the third.Â
Alberta will visit Manitoba next weekend in their final two conference games of 2024/25.Â
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