Edmonton - The No.5 ranked Alberta Golden Bears completed a weekend sweep of the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns with a convincing 6-1 victory Saturday night at Clare Drake Arena.

The Bears were led by freshman forward Jordan Hickmott who scored twice, while Levko Koper, Lindsay Nielson, Johnny Lazo and James Dobrowolski added singles. Sean Ringrose chipped in with three assists.

Pronghorns fifth year forward Dustin Moore scored his team leading 13th goal of the season in the loss.

Kurtis Mucha rebounded from a tough start last weekend in Saskatchewan with a 16-save performance while his counterpart Scott Bowles was solid making 30 saves in the loss.

After getting swept last weekend against Saskatchewan, the Bears couldn’t have asked for a better weekend this time around.

The Bears special teams were fantastic scoring two more goals (four overall) on the power play Saturday night as well as a short-handed marker and they were perfect once again on the penalty kill.

Their two victories combined with Manitoba’s sweep of Saskatchewan this weekend has the Bears tied for top spot in the Canada West with a 15-5-2 record.

Lethbridge drops to 5-14-3, but still hold a three-point edge on Regina for the final playoff spot in the Canada West.

“I really liked the way we came out and sent a message, particularly in the first period,” said Bears head coach Stan Marple. “There were a few things that got away from us in the second period, but we responded with a good third period and the way we played this weekend will give us a lot of confidence heading down the stretch.”

The line of Hickmott, Koper and Ringrose was extremely dangerous on Friday night, but weren’t rewarded.

But on Saturday, that line came through in a big way as they combined for seven points in the victory.

Koper scored his ninth of the season at the 12:51 mark of the opening period after he took a feed from Ringrose and ripped a shot over the glove of Bowles.

Just like they did Friday night in the second period, the Bears’ quick strike offence went to work, but this time it was in the first.

Nielson scored his first goal of the season just 2:04 later as the sophomore forward streaked down the left wing and slapped a bullet shot over the shoulder of Bowles.

Hickmott scored just moments after that as he finished off a nice tic-tac-toe passing play.

Three goals in just 4:19 put the Horns back on their heels and the Bears strung together a dominating first period, outshooting Lethbridge 20-4 in the process.

“Our line prides ourselves on hard work and last night, we worked hard, but were just snake bit,” said Hickmott who now sits second on the team in scoring with 10. “Ringer is a huge key to our line, because nobody works harder than him. The coaches told both Levko and I at the beginning of the year that if we can keep up with him, we’ll have success, and Ringer has been a huge influence on us.”

After scoring twice on Friday night Lazo scored his team leading 12th of the season just 38 seconds into the second period.

Despite giving up the goal, the Pronghorns arguably played their best period of the weekend outshooting the Bears 9-3 in the middle stanza.

They outworked Alberta in the second period and they finally were able to break the goose-egg when Moore ended a 107:31 scoring drought for Lethbridge.

Dobrowolski scored a late power play marker in the third to round out the scoring. It was the freshman’s third goal in three games.

“I thought our third and fourth lines were huge for us tonight. Dobrowolski’s starting to find his scoring touch for us, and our fourth line chipped in offensively tonight,” said Marple. “Nielson’s goal early in the first was big. It gave us some breathing room and we had all four lines contribute tonight. “I saw a lot of good things this weekend. We’re starting to get more traffic and net presence on our power play.”

With Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all just separated by two points in the standings, it’s going to be an exciting race to the playoffs in what could be one of the most entertaining playoffs in recent history.

“This weekend was huge for us, but we literally have to take each game down the stretch one game at a time,” said Marple. “In light of what happened this weekend, it’s going to make these next few games very important.”