January 5 - Ian McDonald (Edmonton, 2nd) and Brian Woolger (Edmonton, 2nd) each scored twice as the #2 ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears (13-2-1 Canada West, 19-4-2 overall) knocked off the visiting Manitoba Bisons (9-8-1 Canada West, 14-16 overall) 6-1 Saturday night in Edmonton.

One night after McDonald scored a hat-trick to pace the Golden Bears to an 8-1 victory over Manitoba, a disputed goal by the former 90-point scorer out of the WHL turned momentum in Alberta’s favour late in the first period tonight.

With the score tied 1-1 and the Bears on a powerplay, McDonald thought he poked the puck into the net past Manitoba netminder Steve Christie (Winnipeg, MB, 2nd).

Referee Guy Doucet immediately waved the goal off, but after consulting with the goal judge, called it a goal about 45 seconds later much to the chagrin of the Bisons.

Then 4:32 into the second, with the Bisons on the powerplay, Christie misplayed a long dump in, and Dale Mahovsky (Fort Saskatchewan, AB, 2nd) pounced on a loose puck and poked it past Christie giving Alberta a 3-1 lead.

Given that the Bisons have not won in Edmonton since the 1995-96 season, a span of 29 games (0-28-1) you had to wonder if it was not meant to be Manitoba’s night.

Woolger then broke the game wide open scoring his second goal of the night on a terrific back door feed from Dylan Stanley (Edmonton, 3rd) at 10:14 to make it 4-1 with McDonald sniped a beauty on the backhand before the end of the period to give Alberta a comfortable 5-1 lead after two.

Alberta outshot a fatigued Bisons team 13-1 in the third period with Mark Ashton (Fort Saskatchewan, AB, 2nd) rounding out the scoring for the Golden Bears with his first goal of the season.

Manitoba, who had a strong first period outshooting Alberta 12-10 got their lone goal of the night on a 5-on-3 as Riley Dudar (Winnipeg, MB, 2nd) had a wide open net to deposit the puck past 2006-07 All-Canadian netminder Aaron Sorochan (Edmonton, 3rd).

“We had an average first period but picked it up from that point and they looked a little tired,” said Alberta Head Coach Eric Thurston.

The #9 ranked Bisons played four games in four days last weekend in Thunder Bay winning the TBAY Tel Varsity Cup.

Alberta outshot Manitoba 39-22 on a night in which Stanley, freshman Eric Hunter (Winnipeg, MB), Tim Krymusa (Morden, MB, 5th) and Chad Klassen (Saskatoon, SK, 2nd) all picked up two assists each.

The Bears were 2-for-6 on the powerplay, and the Bisons were 1-for-4.

Manitoba has the bye next weekend, while Alberta travels to Lethbridge to face the Pronghrons on an eleven game winning streak (Friday and Saturday, webcast on www.bears.ualberta.ca).

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