Felix Chon
Puck Bears up the powerplay for wins over ‘Horns
Atta Almasi
Sports Staff
Jan 25, 2012
In a week filled with discussion of head and facial injuries in hockey after the injury of Edmonton Oilers forward Taylor Hall, the Golden Bears’ hockey weekend saw a high stick to forward James Dobrowlski, which came in Friday’s game against the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns.
The high stick resulted in a double minor penalty, in which the Green and Gold failed to score a goal. The Bears went into Friday’s game ranked second-last in powerplay conversions in Canada West; however, they made the rest of their man advantages count, going two for five both nights against the ‘Horns. The Bears came out on top against Lethbridge 5-0 on Friday and 6-1 on Saturday.
Head coach Stan Marple expressed his pride at the team’s powerplay statistic this weekend, adding that the wins came from his team’s ability to prevent the ‘Horns from converting their opportunities with the man advantage.
“Our key to beating teams is playing five on five hockey. Obviously we’ll take any powerplays we can get,” Marple said. “Our powerplay was pretty good (Saturday). I think we got two again on the (powerplay), but in regards to not taking penalties I think our penalty kill was pretty good — we didn’t allow any powerplay goals this weekend.”
The two wins against the ‘Horns, coupled with a two game slide by the Saskatchewan Huskies on the road against the Manitoba Bisons, means that the Bears have moved into a tie for first place in the CanWest standings with the Huskies. They have also clinched one of the league’s six playoff spots going into two weekends of play away from home, starting in Vancouver against the UBC Thunderbirds this Friday. The T-Birds are a team they defeated 4-1 twice back in November at Clare Drake Arena.
“I think UBC’s going to be tough in Vancouver, but I feel that if we bring the type of pressure that we brought this weekend (against) Lethbridge and we apply that same type of pressure and work ethic against UBC, I think we’ll be successful,” Marple said. “We’ve just got to take things one game at a time, especially with what happened across the league this weekend. We’ve just got to worry about ourselves and try to finish as high as we can in the standings and hopefully get some home ice advantage in the playoffs.”
Riding a six-game winning streak after a two-game sweep of the Calgary Dinos in Vancouver,UBC is the first road stop for the Bears before they travel to Regina to take on the Cougars the following weekend.
Playoffs will be hosted by the top team in Canada West.
Comments
Submit a comment
All comments must be approved by a moderator before they will be visible, and may take up to 48 hours to appear. Comments may be no longer than 5000 characters.
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Concerns about digital rights doesn’t mean sympathy for child pornographers
02/15/2012
Legislating the internet is comparable to doing brain surgery on yourself while riding a roller coaster: It’s going to go terribly wrong, and even if it does go alright, it won’t be pretty. I don’t know; I’m not a doctor.
Pandas hockey look to win finals for higher seeding at nationals
02/20/2012
A two-win series over the Saskatchewan Huskies last weekend in the Canada West semi-finals means the puck Pandas are headed to Calgary this weekend to face-off against the Dinos for top spot in CanWest.
Opinion Podcast — February 21, 2012
02/21/2012
This week, Vic Toews, mandatory Indigenous Studies classes in university, Americans loving Canada, and a guy who spent seven years digging out a basement with toy tractors.
Opinion Podcast — February 21, 2012
This week, Vic Toews, mandatory Indigenous Studies classes in university, Americans loving Canada, and a guy who spent seven years digging out a basement with toy tractors.
