Box Score Edmonton – A career-high four points by Jordan Hickmott propelled the No.1 ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears men’s hockey team to a scrappy 4-1 win over the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns Friday night at Clare Drake Arena.


Hickmott, who now has 14 goals and 13 assists and moves into the team scoring lead, as well as fourth in the conference, set up the first three Alberta goals before scoring the fourth to push the Bears to their 14^th win in their last 15 games, and a record of 17-4. The former Edmonton Oil King’s tremendous effort generated two goals from second-year winger Levko Koper and another from Kruise Reddick, while third-year goaltender Kurtis Mucha, making his 13^th start, had 16 saves in the victory.


Despite being badly outshot 44-17 by the Bears, Lethbridge received a stellar performance from netminder Damien Kelto. The former Lethbridge Hurricane battled hard, kept his team close early and made 40 saves, however, the loss see the Pronghorns drop to a record of 1-18-2. Cass Mappin scored the team’s lone goal.


Koper opened the scoring at 6:34 of the first period with power-play goal that Kelto might want back. Positioned below the goal line to the right of Kelto, the former Spokane Chief took a feed from Hickmott, faked pass and shovelled it between the goalie’s pad and goalpost to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.


The second period started quickly for the Bears, as Reddick converted a centering pass from Hickmott just 52 seconds in which stretched the lead to 2-0. A parade to the penalty box followed, including six straight Alberta infractions that gave the Pronghorn’s a true opportunity to put the Bears on their heels. Instead, the nation’s best team, who came into the contest with Canada West’s second-best penalty kill (83.2%), continually pushed the attack against the Lethbridge power play. After jumping into the rush and the Bears returning to even strength, Koper converted his second goal of the night after receiving a beautiful pass from Hickmott. The game’s first star would then cap his four-point night with a short-handed bullet at 12:29, a tally that ties him for the conference lead in that category. In total, 10 penalties were called against the squads in the second period, including a game misconduct for Lethbridge defender Tim Campbell.


Lethbridge would break Mucha’s shutout bid early in the third period on the power-play, as Mappin took a slap pass from rookie-defender David McMullen to register his team-leading third power play goal of the season. The ‘Horns wasted a terrific opportunity to cut the deficit to two when rookie-winger Cody Chikie created a break away from his own blue line after stripping an Alberta defender, only to lift the puck high and wide over Mucha.


Incredibly, the teams forced the referees to call 13 more penalties in the third period, and combined for 86 penalty minutes in the game overall.
Alberta and Lethbridge return to Clare Drake tomorrow night at 6 p.m. for the second game of their two-game series.