CALGARY – Fresh off of a weekend sweep of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at Father David Bauer Arena Bauer, the University of Calgary Dinos will look to make it four in a row as they head to Vancouver for their final Canada West games of 2009.

Outscoring the T-Birds 8-1 in their two games in Calgary, the Dinos found the balance they had been looking for, receiving solid efforts from all over the ice.

Dustin Butler and Jeff Weber each found success backstopping the Dinos past UBC, making 22 and 32 saves respectively in their Friday and Saturday performances. Weber in particular, who has played a supporting role to Dustin Butler thus far in 2009, had his breakout game of the season on Saturday recording the victory and shutout, both firsts of the 2009-10 campaign.

Brock Nixon pushed his way into the top-20 in scoring after a four point weekend, sitting 15th with 22 points, while Torrie Wheat and Reid Jorgensen sit with 13 points each. Nixon scored two of his three weekend goals on Saturday in a dominant performance from the second-year forward.

Rookie Luke Egener shone on defence for Calgary, registering a plus-2 rating to go along with four shots on offence. The Dinos plenty of offensive support from their blue line as well, with Cory Pritz, Joel Eisenkirch, and Jerrid Sauer finding the back of the twine over the weekend.

With no other games ongoing this weekend, both Calgary and UBC control their own destiny in terms of how far they move up or down in the standings. Currently in fourth in Canada West, the Dinos (8-4-2) would love nothing more than to take two more from the Birds (4-9-1), and can move to as high as second in the conference with such an effort.

While they cannot finish the fall semester any lower than sixth, with a two game sweep UBC can pass the Lethbridge Pronghorns for fifth in the conference. The T-Birds will also be looking to gain ground on the last-place Regina Cougars, who at the conclusion of this weekend's set will have two games in hand on the 'Birds and could be potentially only one point out of their sixth place standing.

The Birds will be looking for a much better offensive effort after struggling in Calgary, and will need players such as Justin McCrae and Brandon Campos to step up to the task of pestering the Dinos goaltenders more consistently. Matthew Schneider scored the lone goal for UBC on Friday, which came midway through the third period to break-up Butler's shutout attempt for Calgary.

Francois Thuot and Jordan White both had their troubles this past weekend in net for the Birds, each allowing four goals, and they will have only a week to analyze and adjust to the Dinos offensive pressure. White could see most of the playing time against Calgary, depending on how Thuot, who went down awkwardly behind his net on Saturday at Bauer and was forced to leave, recovers from injury.

UBC will start the winter semester with the Regina Cougars on Jan. 7-8, 2010, which could be a series of big implications for the two clubs, while Calgary will come back to a home-and-home series with the Alberta Golden Bears.

-UC-