BOX SCORE

EDMONTON - For the second straight night, the No.5 Alberta Golden Bears overcame a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Calgary Dinos, sweeping the weekend series with a 4-2 win, Saturday night at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.
 
Rookies Jordan Rowley and Levko Koper, as well as sophomore Johnny Lazo and team captain Greg Gardner, scored for the home team while former Medicine Hat Tiger Sean Ringrose added a pair of assists to put his point total to four on the weekend.
 
Brock Nixon scored in his third straight game for the Dinos, with teammate Taylor Stefishen equalling him for the team lead of eight goals with a tally of his own.
 
Alberta opened the scoring in the final minute of the first period when Rowley took a slapshot from the Calgary blueline, ringing it off the post for his first goal of the season with 46 seconds left.
 
The Dinos replied early in the second, however, when Nixon, killing a Calgary penalty, wrestled the puck away from Golden Bears' defender Thomas Carr before sliding it under Réal Cyr at the 2:10 mark.
 
From there, the period tilted towards the Dinos' end, Alberta outshooting the visitors 14-6 in the period and 24-12 after 40 minutes, but the score remained knotted at one thanks to netminder Dustin Butler, who made several key saves and totalled 34 on the night.
 
Unfortunately for Butler, Stefishen's go-ahead goal, a quick shot in the Alberta slot, at 3:09 into the third period was countered by Gardner's tip shot on the power-play exactly four minutes later. Gardner scored his first goal of the season last night as the game-winner but, tonight, the deciding goal honour went to Koper, who did it in style.
 
The former Spokane Chief started the play when he put on the afterburners in the neutral zone, managing to squeeze through two Calgary defenders and fire a shot just wide of the far post.
 
Though the Dinos attempted to clear, Ringrose got a hold of the puck at the blueline, passed it off to Jordan Hickmott, and took a sacrificial hit, allowing Hickmott to find a wide-open Koper who one-timed a squeaker through Butler's pads.
 
The forward from Edmonton leads all freshmen with a plus/minus rating of +14 and is second in the rookie scoring race with 16 points. Hickmott leads with 20 points and has a plus/minus rating of +13.
 
Lazo would round out the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:01 remaining.
 
The Dinos finished 0-3 on the power-play while Alberta went 1-7, but also allowed Nixon's shorthanded tally.
 
The 13-3-2 Golden Bears now head to Saskatchewan to battle for first place with the 13-3-2 Huskies. Calgary, falling to 9-9, will face their second-straight home-and-home weekend when they head to Lethbridge to face off against the 4-11-3 Pronghorns on Friday before hosting them on Saturday.

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