Klassen connects against Calgary in Alberta Golden Bears’ 6-4 win

Chad Klassen scored a pair of goals and an assist to give the #2-ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears a come-from-behind 6-4 victory over the University of Calgary Dinos, Saturday night at Clare Drake Arena.

Klassen (25 points) and his linemates, Ian McDonald (16) and Derek Ryan (19), all currently place in the top 10 in the Canada West scoring leaders, as do four other Golden Bears, thanks to a conference-leading 79 goals in 14 games. McDonald was bumped-up to the first line after regular winger Brian Woolger sat out with injury.

Not among the magnificent seven, recent scoring machine Lee Zalasky opened the scoring with his second goal in as many nights when the former Prince George Cougar snuck a wraparound underneath the leg of Calgary netminder Dustin Butler at the 5:26 mark of the opening frame.

After trading goals late in the first period, Calgary tied the game at two just seconds after Alberta goalie Travis Yonkman made a spectacular stick save on Dino Dustin Hatlelid. Yonkman denied the Calgary forward on the goal line, but the rebound squirted out to Matt Isbister, younger brother to Dinos' assistant coach and former Edmonton Oiler Brad Isbister, who knocked the loose puck in off of Yonkman's glove for his first goal of the season and the 2-2 score.

57 seconds later, Dinos' captain Aaron Richards cut in from sideboards and collected a rebound of his own to put Calgary up by one, and Isbister would get his second on the night by tipping a Cory Pritz point-shot at the 8:42 mark of the middle frame.

Leading Canada West and his team in points, Klassen cut the two-goal deficit in half just under two minutes later when he one-timed a snapshot from the Calgary blueline, leaving the door open in the third for freshman Sean Ringrose, holding second place in Canada West and the Bears with 20 points, to knot the game up at four with the goal of the game.

From his knees and facing opposite the Calgary goal, Ringrose's backhand just outside the blue paint banked off the inside of Butler's left leg just 42 seconds into the final stanza.

Klassen, a former Saskatoon Blade, would get a breakaway opportunity five minutes later to get his second but a stonewalling by Butler forced the Saskatoon native to wait for an empty-netter.

In the meantime, he would make a golden pass from behind the goal line to an open McDonald on a late Alberta power-play where the ex-Tri-City American would roof the puck into a gaping net for the game-winning goal.

The goal was Alberta's second on the man-advantage, finishing at 2 for 10 on the evening while Calgary would finish 1 for 6.

The 12-1-1 Bears head on the road next weekend for their final conference games of 2009 while the 6-4-2 Dinos return to Calgary to host the UBC Thunderbirds.