Box Score
Courtesy of Alberta Sports Information

EDMONTON â€" The No.10 Mount Royal University Cougars surprised the No.1 University of Alberta Golden Bears with a come-from-behind overtime victory, taking a 3-2 decision back home in the first half of a home-and-home series, Friday night at Clare Drake Arena.

Mount Royal's leading scorer, Cody Cartier, had a pair of goals, including the game-winner, while former Camrose Kodiak Tyler Jewitt tied the game with 11.3 seconds left in the third period. Former University of Calgary Dino Tyler Fiddler added two assists.

Ex-Victoria Royal Jamie Crooks and Edmonton native Levko Koper got the Bears out to an early 2-0 lead before the Cougars snapped Alberta's eight-game winning streak.

The Bears drop to 21-3-1 but had already clinched first place in the conference standings last weekend. Mount Royal improves to 16-8-1 to keep pace with the Calgary Dinos, who remain one point up on the Cougars after all of Friday night's action.

Alberta dominated the play in the first period, outshooting the visitors 17-6 in the opening 20 minutes and opening the scoring at the 5:10 mark when Crooks used a screen in front, chipping a shot from the faceoff dot over the glove of rookie 'tender Cam Lanigan.

Just under two minutes later, the Bears doubled the lead off a tic-tac-toe play in the offensive zone, Koper finishing with a one-timer for his eighth of the season.

On the penalty kill late in the frame, freshman Riley Kieser almost made it 3-0 but Lanigan stoned him on the breakaway with his right pad and got a little luck on the rebound as Stephane Legault shot the puck wide before the net came off its moorings to end the play.

Back on the ice for the second period, the momentum was all Mount Royal, the road squad outshooting Alberta in their own rink by a 7-1 margin to start the stanza.

Rookie Zack Henry got close to cutting the lead in half, getting the best chance of the frame when just to the right of the slot, he had an open net to shoot at but third-year rearguard Brennan Yadlowski made a huge block to keep the Cougars off the board.

It was all for naught in the third, however, Cartier grabbing a loose puck in the slot before outwaiting Alberta netminder Kurtis Mucha who guessed the wrong way by going right, leaving the fourth-year a chance to go left and slide the puck along the ice into the open goal, 42 seconds into the period.

The Bears, who were outshot 9-4 in the second, continued to struggle for offensive pressure in the third while the Cougars just kept grinding away as time wound down, hoping to get a break.

And a break they got when defender Bill Marshall lobbed a shot from the top of the faceoff circle, Jewitt tipping the puck about waist height to flick the rubber into the opposite corner of the net and tie the game up at two.

Halfway through the tentative first overtime period, as the Bears tried to begin a rush from behind their own goal, the puck ricocheted off a leg and right out to the slot to an opportunistic Cartier, potting the puck inside the far post to massive cheers from the Mount Royal bench, swarming the ice to celebrate their sudden-death victory.

Both teams finished the night at 0-3 on the power-play.

Game two of the home-and-home series will go Saturday at Flames Community Arena in Calgary, puck drop at 7:00 p.m. MT.