EDMONTON – A five-goal second period broke open a 2-1 game as the University of Alberta Golden Bears captured their 49th Canada West men's hockey championship with an 8-1 shellacking of the Calgary Dinos Saturday night at Clare Drake Arena.

BOX SCORE

Alberta wins the best-of-three Canada West championship series 2-0 after Friday night's 3-0 win and advances to the CIS University Cup as the top seed out of Canada West. Despite the loss, the Dinos will also travel to Fredericton for the national championship tournament March 24-27, their first appearance since the 1999-2000 season.

The Bears got off to another quick start Saturday, with Derek Ryan scoring shorthanded just 55 seconds into the game after the Dinos had worked hard on the opening shift to draw a penalty. At the 6:27 mark J.P. Szaszkiewicz tipped in a wrister from the slot to make it 2-0 Alberta, and it looked like things would get out of hand quickly. But just 14 seconds later, Joel Eisenkirch scored just his second goal of the season to put the Dinos on the board and, though they were outplayed and outshot by an 18-5 margin, Calgary headed into the dressing room down by just one.

And that's when it started to deteriorate. Sean Ringrose scored 43 seconds into the second period on the power play, and Szaszkiewicz added his second just 53 seconds later and all of a sudden it was 4-1. The Bears would add three more goals in the second period and one more for good measure in the third to hand the Dinos the 8-1 defeat.

“I'm extremely disappointed with the effort tonight,” said Calgary head coach Mark Howell. “Mentally we weren't sharp, and if we can take anything out of tonight it's to learn from them. Their level of compete, their level of try was at a different level tonight. They wanted to win, and they're the champions because of it. We have to learn from that – and we still have a chance to go to nationals and play some very meaningful games, but we have to learn to be mentally sharp for every second of every shift because it matters all the time.”

Calgary starter Kris Lazaruk, who came in to relieve Dustin Butler in the third period Friday night, was yanked by Howell after 21:36 of playing time and four goals against. Butler didn't fare much better against the Bears' shooting gallery as the home side thrilled a big crowd of nearly 3,000 with 43 shots on goal against just 16 for the Dinos.

Fifth-year forward Chad Klassen had a five-point outing for the Bears with a goal and two assists, while Johnny Lazo joined Szaszkiewicz with a two-goal night. Canada West scoring champion Derek Ryan added two assists to his opening shorthanded goal to finish with three points on the night.

“I don't know if it was pressure, but we've stressed details and habits all year,” said Howell. “The big thing we talked about coming into the third was continuing with those habits and details and the structure that we have and getting that back in our game.”

Calgary last won the Canada West title in 1996 and was making its first appearance in the conference championship series since that season.

The Dinos head back to Calgary to regroup and prepare for the national tournament hosted by the UNB Varsity Reds in Fredericton. Calgary and Alberta will join host UNB, St. Francis Xavier, McGill, and Western Ontario at the University Cup.

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period
ALTA – Ryan (Klassen, Barteaux), SH, 0:55
ALTA – Szaszkiewicz (Nielsen, Klassen), 6:27
CGY – Eisenkirch (Jorgensen), 6:41

2nd Period
ALTA – Ringrose (Rodgers, Hunter), PP, 0:43
ALTA – Szaszkiewicz (Ryan, Klassen), 1:36
ALTA – Lazo (Lindemulder, Gardner), 8:34
ALTA – Klassen (Szaszkiewicz, Craige), PP, 10:03
ALTA – Barteaux (Ringrose, Rodgers), PP, 15:08

3rd Period
ALTA – Lazo (Ryan, Klassen), PP, 11:36

-UC-