Box Score The Alberta Golden Bears overpowered the Manitoba Bisons en route to 6-1 win on Saturday afternoon at Wayne Fleming Arena.
"The score didn't really reflect how the game was played. Their goalie played a really good game, he's a really good goalie," said Bisons Head Coach Gordon Burnett after the loss.
"When you look at the special teams you have to be better than that. To give up a power play goal while we couldn't score on our five-on-three and gave up a short handed goal we didn't deserve to win," Burnett added.
The Bisons started the game strong skating stride for stride with the Golden Bears for three quarters of the first period.
Manitoba had a two man advantage in a five-on-three but Ethan Kruger stood tall in net for Alberta stopping everything thrown his way.
Eventually the flood gates opened when Alberta broke the deadlock on their first power play when Justin Hall slotted it home.
Momentum shifted in favour of the Golden Bears after they took the lead.
Alberta snuck another one past Ross Hawrlyuk 7 minutes into the second after a bouncing puck fell into the lap of Alex Thacker.
The Golden Bears looked in full control after netting a third on the power play with 4 minutes to go in the period. Jakin Smallwood found the back of the net to make it 3-0.
Smallwood put the game on ice a minute into the third period when he buried a second chance effort to give them an insurmountable 4-0 lead.
Manitoba pulled one back late in the third when Alex Sutter scored on a resilient second chance effort. It was his first goal of the season.
The Golden Bears added another one late when Tyler Preziuso poked in the rebound off of Smallwood's shot.
"The things we're working on are starting to show up in the games. Going into a month long break isn't ideal but we're going to continue to work at it," said Burnett about the winter break ahead. "When you look at where we were on day one and now, you wouldn't recognize it as the same group. I'm happy with the development of all the players and think they'd say the same."
The Bisons return from the break to host the UBC Thunderbirds at home on January 5th.
