Golden Bears hockey dominates NAIT, or they should have

The Golden Bears hockey team wrapped up the semester against the NAIT Ooks in a cross-town rivalry exhibition weekend on December 6 and 7. The Bears are currently leading Canada West while the Ooks are sitting fifth in the Alberta Collages Athletics Conference.

Bears goalie Ethan Kruger started in Friday night’s game only to be replaced by Ethan Lawcynski halfway through the second. Lawcynski has been a healthy scratch so far in the season. A little playing time, especially in games that don’t count for anything, will help keep him fresh. But the usual starting goalie, Tyler Palmer was not the only scratch. Aidan de la Gorgendiere, Tyler Preziuso, Eric Florchuk, Alex Thacker and other great players sat in stands on Friday night.

To mix things up even more, Justin Hall, Josh Prokop, Jakin Smallwood, Chase Leslie, and Kruger took a back seat during Saturday’s game.

Back in the lineup was Sean Tschigerl who missed last weekend against the Mount Royal Cougars on November 29 and 30 due to a concussion.

Bears’ slow start in game one leads to absolute blowout

Heading into Friday night’s game, the Ooks had an attitude of, ‘we know we suck, so we’re just going to fight.’ But maybe they weren’t as bad as they thought. They tied the game 1-1 in the second half of the first and capitalized on the Bears’ disorganization.

The Bears ultimately came back to end the first with a 3-1 score, which was nothing compared to the 6-1 score to end the second. Throughout the second, the Bears secured the penalty kill, and it seemed as if they were playing five-on-five.

The Bears shockingly made nothing out of the power play though, despite back-to-back opportunities. Perhaps the power play is not coming back as strong as we would have thought on all lines.

With a minute left, Joel Sexsmith took a nasty hit and had to be helped off the ice. The Ooks took a charging penalty to end the game with a 10-2 score for the Bears.

What happened on Saturday?

On Saturday’s game, the most surprising thing ever happened. The Ooks got a two goal lead over the Bears with Palmer in net. What’s more, is that they actually won the game with a 4-3 score. Overall, the whole game was a bleak comparison to the Bears’ performance the night prior.

But where to start? There was a general lack of speed when racing to the puck, bad passing, some interesting goaltending, no puck control, and little play-making, to name a few.

The Bears seemed to turn things around in the second with McClennon’s second goal of the game, short-handed. The regular short-handed star, Preziuso, helped the Bears gain some shots on goal with his speed in the offensive zone and seemed to be one very few players with any real urgency. But ultimately, it takes more than one guy.

Throughout the third, the Bears added some skill to their game but weren’t able to come back from their only one goal deficit. The loss was sealed after a four minute double-major to Tschigerl for high-sticking with six minutes left in the game, followed by another penalty thirty seconds after Tschigerl’s had ended.

The only real thing that can be said about the game is that the Bears were not playing their best. It was obvious all players were frustrated by the end of it.

But, we got a good look at our usual scratches

Despite the team’s split performance over the weekend, Noah Boyko played a solid couple of games. He was consistently able to find the open ice and this got him a hat trick to end Friday night’s game.

Vincent Lamanna played a great game Friday night but fell off, like the rest of team, during Saturday’s game. On December 6, Lamanna scored his second goal of the season but dumped the puck any chance he got on December 7.

Sexsmith has been coming in and out of the lineup a couple times this season, and it’s been interesting to see which defensive partner he plays best with. Throughout the weekend, Sexsmith played on Marc Lajoie’s line, and if he’s needed, it would a decent combo.

For not playing in net at all this season, Lawcynski did a pretty great job after playing the second half of both games. He let in one goal on Friday night, same as Kruger, and another one goal against on Saturday, two less than Palmer. Like Sexsmith, if needed, he’ll be ready.