MHKY: Fonteyne, Smallwood help Bears level series with UBC

EDMONTON - Matt Fonteyne did what all good captains do.

With his team down 2-0, Fonteyne rallied his team by scoring twice and Jakin Smallwood would complete the comeback with his first-career Canada West playoff goal with 1:39 remaining as the University of Alberta Golden Bears staved off elimination and tied their Canada West semifinal series with a 4-3 win over the UBC Thunderbirds, Saturday night at Clare Drake Arena.

"He's a captain that leads by example. We have a lot of character in our dressing room, and our guys really responded. It took everything for us to get the win tonight," said Bears head coach Ian Herbers.

"Our guys kept after it, and kept working, and that was the best two periods we've played in these playoffs."

Tyler Preziuso also scored for Alberta, while Scott Atkinson, Chris Douglas and Sam Huo tallied for UBC.

Ethan Kruger made 26 saves for his first Canada West playoff victory, while UBC netminder Cole Schwebius made 39 saves in the loss.

UBC held a 2-0 lead after the first period on goals from Atkinson and Douglas. The T-Birds looked like they had the Bears on the ropes, but Preziuso's second goal of the playoffs cut UBC's lead in half midway through the second frame and Fonteyne would tie it at 2-2 with 2:06 left in the second.

Fonteyne gave Alberta its first lead with a power play marker at the 5:46 mark of the third, before Huo would tie it at 3-3 less than three minutes later.

"UBC is a good team. They've proved it the entire second half, and they came out and established their game. We bent, we gave up a couple of goals, but I liked our response in the second and third, and we had our whole team contributing," said Herbers.

Alberta would score their third power play goal of the game after a late penalty call on Josh Williams that led to Smallwood's game-winner.

The Golden Bears would finish 3-for-6 with the man-advantage.

"I don't know why the refs feel like they need to get involved in a great playoff game with two great teams going at it," said T-Birds head coach Sven Butenschon, regarding the late penalty call.

"They pushed back. Their season was on the line, and we knew they were going to come hard at us. I thought we responded well, and fought right to the end, but we didn't get the kills when we needed it."

Alberta and UBC will play Game 3 of their Canada West semifinal series on Sunday at 7 p.m. MT at Clare Drake Arena.