LETHBRIDGE — The Alberta Golden Bears showed the Lethbridge Pronghorns why they are the defending Canada West Champions, with a convincing 9–1 win at the Nicholas Sheran Arena on Friday night.
Josh Paterson netted a hat trick, and Clayton Kirichenko had four points on the night and a game-high 10 shots on goal, leading their Golden Bears to the massive eight-goal margin that was beyond salvageable for the Pronghorns.
Taz Burman made 59 saves for his Pronghorns in the losing effort, while Alberta's starter, Brendan Burke, stopped 18 of 19 in his campaign for the win.
The Golden Bears domination was evident from the opening moments as the visitors amassed 11 shots to Lethbridge's four shots in the opening ten minutes of the game. Both teams would have chances on the powerplay, but neither team was able to score that crucial early goal.
Despite a strong showing from Burman saving 24 shots in the first, his defence allowed one too many shots in the period, as the visitors struck first on the powerplay with three seconds left in the frame.
Trevor Cox's one-timer from the high-point got blocked in traffic, but Paterson found the puck at his feet and drilled the puck past a sliding Burman.
Alberta's momentum from the first period carried over to the second, kickstarting a quick breakout from their zone to send Cox into the Pronghorns zone on the near side. Cox snapped a mid-point shot through the legs of Taylor Fisher and past the glove of Burman, for his team's second of the game.
Their momentum would be quickly cut off by their own devices, as a series of penalties would land them defending a Pronghorns 5-on-3 opportunity.
On said opportunity, Lethbridge locked themselves into their opponent's zone, cycling the puck around the Golden Bears special team. Fisher would get the puck to Brooks Maxwell feeding Luke Coleman directly in front of Burke, cutting their deficit in half.
Following the Lethbridge tally, Alberta's dominating tendencies returned to score four unanswered on Burman within two minutes. Kirichenko scored his first of the season just past the game's halfway point, followed by a pair 60 and 70 seconds later from Nolan Volcan and Tyler Soy, and a single tally from Dawson Davidson to cap off the two-minute onslaught.
Lethbridge would successfully defend a 5-on-3 penalty-kill of their own following the surge of Golden Bears goals, and Burman remained tending the net to keep the difference at five goals, closing out the period having faced 50 shots in 40 minutes.
Period three saw more of the same from both sides, Noah Philp scored inside the final ten minutes, and Patterson scored his second and third goals to close out the game, with Edmonton-based squad taking their eight-goal spread with them as the leave the ice.
Thanks to a Saskatchewan Huskies win over the Calgary Dinos on Friday, Alberta leapfrogs the Dinos to take first place in the conference with a record of 6-1-0, and Lethbridge falls to sixth place with their loss now holding a record of 3-4-0.
The Pronghorns close out their weekend series against the Golden Bears on Saturday at the Nicholas Sheran Arena. Puck drop is at 7 PM.
