EDMONTON - Sophomore forward Greg Gardner scored his first career CIS two-goal game as the No.2 ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears' hockey team rolled to a 7-2 victory over the Calgary Dinos, Friday night at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.

Freshman center Sean Ringrose also notched a two-goal game, while Derek Ryan, Lee Zalasky, and J.P. Szaszkiewicz added singles as the Bears improved their conference record to 11-1-1 and increased their first-place lead to four points over the Manitoba Bisons.

Torrie Wheat and Aaron Richards scored for Calgary, who saw their record drop to 6-3-2, which puts them in third place in the Canada West standings.

Eric Thurston's Golden Bears now boast a plus-42 goal differential, thanks to 73 goals scored and 31 goals against in just 13 games, or an average of a 5-2 score per game.

Ringrose, who scored 28 goals and 59 points last season with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League, has been on a tear since the end of October.  The Edmonton native has registered at least a point in the last seven games for a total of 15 points (five goals and 10 assists) since October 30.  In that time, he has pumped his season point total to 19, which puts him second in Canada West scoring, and makes him the highest scoring rookie in the conference by five points.

He opened the scoring against Calgary at the 5:51 mark of the first, his fifth of the season, and collected his second goal of the game on the power-play, just 21 seconds into the second period.  Jason Fransoo drew the lone assist on the first Alberta goal, while Eric Hunter, who has scored 13 points in his last seven games as Ringrose's linemate, picked up the power-play assist.

The Dinos cut the lead in half just over a minute after Ringrose's second goal, as fourth-year forward Aaron Richards, a former Kamloops Blazer, picked up his first goal of the season while Calgary was short-handed. Wheat drew the single assist.

Calgary out-shot Alberta throughout the first two periods of the game, but the Golden Bears didn't waste any shots, getting four goals on 19 shots through two periods of play, while the Dinos registered two goals on 20 shots.

With 8:23 left in the second stanza, Lee Zalasky sent a loose puck past Dustin Butler for a 3-1 Alberta lead, but Wheat, a former Everett Silvertip, brought Calgary back within one when he beat Alberta goalie Real Cyr at the 11:31 mark.

The Golden Bears closed out the second period scoring with just 52 seconds remaining when Szaszkiewicz, an Edmonton native who also played for the Edmonton Oil Kings, sniped top corner past Butler after taking a nice feed from Ian McDonald.

In the third period, the Bears simply found another level of play, as Gardner, who had a cup of coffee with the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League, scored on a short-handed breakaway on Butler which prompted a goalie change by the Dinos.

Jeff Weber didn't fare much better giving up a goal to Spokane native Derek Ryan and following it with a power-play tally to Gardner as Alberta out-shot Calgary 14-9 in the third period as well as finish with a 7-2 win.

The two teams, who normally play a home-and-home series when they meet, will face-off again tomorrow night at Clare Drake Arena, with puck drop at 7:30 pm MT.

-UC-