CALGARY – It will be a pivotal weekend for the No. 9-ranked University of Calgary Dinos as they match-up against the No. 2 University of Alberta Golden Bears in the year's first edition of the Battle of Alberta from Nov. 9-10.

The series will start in Edmonton on Nov. 9 before the teams travel to Calgary and meet up at Father David Bauer Arena on Nov. 10.

Coming off a second early season bye-week, the Dinos are eager to get back into game action.

“We have had two weeks off in basically a month which isn't always ideal,” said bench boss Mark Howell. “We had to get some guys healthy; Luke Egener will be coming back which is key. Anytime you get time off you can work on some conditioning and extra strength workouts in the gym which we did.”

“There was a lot of things that needed to get worked on, it wasn't a week to sit back,” mentioned Brock Nixon. “We felt our conditioning and our battle level needed to be addressed, so we handled that and now it's all about prep for the weekend.”

Calgary has split their past three series and sits with a record of 5-3-0 coming into this weekend's action. The Dinos will look to end that streak against the Golden Bears and make up for slow starts in recent weekends. Calgary lost the openers of their sets against UBC, Regina and Manitoba before rebounding in the second game for wins.

While yet to get swept in 2012-13, the Dinos aren't taking any pleasure in the fact they are involved in a logjam at the middle of the Canada West standings. Calgary is tied with Regina with 10 points, but has UBC and Manitoba right behind them with nine points each.

“These next two weekends our huge for us and we look forward to playing the top two squads in the country,” revealed Nixon. “Looking long term at the rest of the season, if you want to finish in the top two, you have to beat these teams, if you're going to be happy with splits or drop two games in a weekend then you're not going to pass them.”

This weekend is the first of two two-game sets between Calgary and Alberta this year. In 2011-12, the two clubs split the season series two games apiece, with the Dinos picking up one win in overtime. Nixon had four goals and an assist against the Golden Bears to lead his team in the Battle of Alberta scoring. Forward Sean Ringrose (1g, 3a) and defenceman Ian Barteaux (4a) lead Alberta versus Calgary.

“Alberta started the season slow, but in the last two weekends they have scored 30 goals by my totals so that is a lot of puck in the net,” explained Howell. “Watching their games, they are really quick, tenacious and ready to score, so it's going to be a real test for sure.”

If the Dinos are going to have success against the Golden Bears in their next two games, they will need to find a way to shut down their offence. Of the top six scorers in the conference, five of them wear the Alberta green and gold. Only second-year Calgary forward Tyler Fiddler breaks up the six high-scoring Alberta players. Adding to their scoring totals, Golden Bear's goaltender Kurtis Mucha tallied a goal of his own two weeks ago against Lethbridge, becoming the first Canada West netminder to do so.

Next weekend the Dinos will get their first shot at the defending Canada West champion Saskatchewan Huskies at home on Nov. 16-17. Last season Calgary lost in triple overtime as Brett Ward sent Saskatchewan to nationals with the series clinching goal. The Golden Bears will be on the road again next weekend as they visit the Regina Cougars from Nov. 16-17.

-UC-