Golden Bears take five unanswered in comeback win over Regina

There were certain expectations going into the Golden Bears hockey team’s game against the Regina Cougars on January 18. First, the Golden Bears took a shutout the night before. Second, they lead Canada West compared to the Regina Cougars‘ last ranked status.

So why wouldn’t they win? By all other standards, the Bears had it in the bag. You could see this during the Cougars’ warmup, and again in the first 10 minutes — the Bears are an intense team that knows how to move the puck. Comparatively, the Cougars showed up to Clare Drake on January 18 acting like they already lost.

But a minute into the third period and the Cougars were dangling a 3-1 lead over the aggressive and unrecognizable Bears.

“It was just a little casual, thinking that the goals just come easy,” head coach Ian Herbers said.

Perhaps.

But maybe the goals do come easy when you start the third three on five. Not even Brett Hyland and Sean Tschigerl’s offensive penalty kill can save that. But maybe Tschigerl’s first of five for the Bears pumped some motivation into an otherwise tired system.

“You see what happens in the third period and just realize it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, what building we’re playing in. We have to play our way, our right way. When we do that we’re tough to play against.”

A tale of two games

To save the game, Aidan de la Gorgendiere, on his own hat-trick watch, took the Bears from 2-3 to 4-3 — a game-winning performance after a silent second period. The period was silent only on the Bears’ part, who made it difficult to say what exactly they were doing wrong.

There’s the obvious answers, like drawing penalties. But each team had five penalties going into the third. Then there’s missed scoring opportunities, but the Bears outshot the Cougars 15-3 in the first and 13-9 in the second.

We could say the special teams weren’t up to snuff, but Hyland opened the scoring with a power play goal.

So what was it?

It seemed that the Bears, while not making huge mistakes, just played at the Cougars’ level.

Until Tschigerl took the Bears within one, starting a series of events that saw five unanswered goals. And five points from Hyland, Tschigerl, and Connor McCelnnon working on overtime to make something happen — anything.

“There’s an expectation out of our line to produce on any given night, but it’s part of the job. I think on Saturday’s game, we rose to the occasion in the third period as a team,” Hyland said.

Hyland — and the Bears — got a bit caught up in the box

It’s true, the Bears came back to win 6-3, albeit in a game where they never should have been behind. And if you ignore the last six penalties all with less than three minutes in the game, all started by Hyland’s boarding call, the Bears only took one more than they drew.

Not as good as Friday night’s 2-1 draw to take ratio, but better than what we’ve seen in the past.

“I think the emotions were running high because it was a tight game and we knew we weren’t playing near our best. There was definitely some penalty related frustration because it slows the game down and doesn’t allow us to get on the attack as much,” according to Hyland, the most panelized player on either team totalling 19 minutes while taking a minor, major, and 10-minute misconduct.

Hyland’s stint with the box did however take away a key component in the Bears’ most effective penalty kill unit. Or it was, until Justin Hall’s back-to-back shorthanded goals took the Bears from 4-3 to 6-3 in three minutes.

Both teams face weird defensive lines

With only two defensive points on Saturday — not a lot for the Bears’ blue line — you could say the sleepy Bears were adjusting.

Joel Sexsmith’s injury forced Herbers to call up forward Bruce MacGregor, who’s been practicing on defence for a couple weeks, just in case.

“He’s smart, a team first guy. I’ve been throwing him around all over the place. He’s been on wing, he’s been center, now he’s playing [defence]. Hopefully we don’t need him [in] net,” Herbers said.

Now that would be something to watch, and with Ethan Kruger injured, you never know.

For now, Sexsmith’s day-to-day status and Blake Gustafson’s unclear timeline could force MacGregor to man the line for longer than expected.

“Bruce did a great job of filling in. It just fits into our team mentality of ‘next man up’,” Marc Lajoie said.