Archive photo courtesy Uwe Welz / U of Alberta Athletics: Brian Woolger (left) scored the second-period game-winner and assisted on the insurance goal for Alberta

EDMONTON - After a humbling effort the night before to receive their first regulation loss of the season, the No. 2 Alberta Golden Bears focused their game for two periods and survived a late scare from the No. 6 Manitoba Bisons on Hallowe’en night before securing a 5-3 victory at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.

The win puts 6-1-1 Alberta back into a tie for first place with 6-3-1 Manitoba and the Bears will have a chance to pass them next weekend when Manitoba takes the bye.

Manitoba-Alberta men's hockey summary

The Bears bid farewell to their previous evening’s performance early on as they scored two quick goals before the game was five minutes old. After some Manitoba pressure in the Alberta zone to start off the game, the starting line of Sean Ringrose, Eric Hunter, and Jesse Gimblett traveled into the Bisons’ end to manufacture a successful cycle in which Gimblett took a feed from Hunter in the slot and picked the top right corner for his third goal of the weekend, just 1:16 into the game.

At the 3:06 mark of the first, Canada West’s top-scoring defenseman, Reade Wolansky, stopped a puck at the Manitoba blue-line and wristed it towards the goal. The shot through traffic managed to evade the left pad of last night’s second star, Steve Christie, and found the back of the net for the early 2-0 lead.

Christie would again have a stellar night by facing more than 30 shots from the Bears, but a bad bounce would increase Manitoba’s deficit to three before the opening period ended.

Although the former Langley Hornet made a great pad save on a Hunter backhand, the puck ricocheted up off the leg and then off the body of ex-Edmonton Oil King Brandon Lockerby to wind up in the back of the net.

The second period wouldn’t start off any better for the visiting team since Canada West’s leading scorer Chad Klassen went to work and zipped a cross-crease pass to linemate Brian Woolger, who quickly buried the feed for his second goal of the season and ninth point.

The Bisons responded just over three minutes later, however, when Tyler Dittmer broke down the right wing and took a shot off from the faceoff circle that hit rookie goalie Travis Yonkman in the shoulder but continued on into the top shelf of the Alberta net.

Taking a 4-1 lead into the final frame and outshooting Manitoba 27-12 may have provided the Bears a little too much comfort, though, since the Bisons made them pay in the first minute of the third, as former Prince Albert Raider Mike Hellyer was “Johnny on the spot” to bang home a rebound over a down-and-out Yonkman to make the score 4-2.

With the momentum swing, Manitoba would continue to press in the Alberta end and managed to reduce the deficit to one when freshman Ian Duval took a snapshot that beat Yonkman low to the stick-side with 3:48 left to go.

Mark Ashton slapshot from the inner hashmarks pushed the lead back to two with 1:24 left to go and prevented the potential Manitoba four-goal comeback.

Alberta takes to the road next weekend to face the UBC Thunderbirds, while Manitoba takes a week off before heading to Regina.