REBEKAH LESKO & COLE GUENTER

Alberta’s backup goaltender Réal Cyr took control between the pipes for the Bears after Kurtis Mucha allowed three goals on seven shots. Cyr backstopped the team to an overtime victory.

Alberta narrowly staved off elimination from the University Cup Friday afternoon.

Levko Koper’s overtime winner notched the top-seeded Alberta Golden Bears their first win of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship. The squad defeated the fourth-seeded Saint Mary’s Huskies 4-3 in front of 9,465 fans at Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon.

The Golden Bears now sport a 1-1 record after completing round robin play in their pool. The Bears can still advance to the championship final, but will now need Saint Mary’s to beat Waterloo Warriors on Saturday afternoon.

The University Cup is split into two pools of three teams. The winner in each pool after round robin play advances to the Cup final. In the event that all three teams in a pool finish with 1-1 records, pool winners are determined by the difference in goals for and against.

Alberta’s only hope of moving on to the final is if Saint Mary’s defeats Waterloo by a score of 1-0 or 2-1; if Saint Mary’s scores more than three goals en route to defeating Waterloo then SMU will go to the final. But if Waterloo wins against Saint Mary’s, the Warriors will be undefeated in the tournament and will get the championship pass.

Alberta’s bench boss Ian Herbers thought his team battled hard to win it in the end, and is telling the players to remain ready in the event that they do make it to the finals.

“At least we’ve given ourselves a chance,” Herbers said. “Our guys need to stay focused [and] stay prepared because there is a possibility that we are still in.”

Saint Mary’s got on the board first in the game. After winning the draw in Alberta’s end, SMU second-year forward Matt Tipoff beat the Golden Bears defence to the puck and quickly fired it past Alberta’s netminder Kurtis Mucha to give his team the early lead.

Alberta answered back, scoring with only 18 seconds left in the first period. Forward Sean Ringrose passed the puck out from behind the Saint Mary’s net to teammate Torrie Dyck, who bulged the twine behind SMU netminder Anthony Peters.

Alberta started the second period with a five-minute man advantage as a result of a checking-to-the-head penalty from Lucas Bloodoff, who was also assessed a game misconduct for the hit.

Two minutes into the power play, Alberta’s Jordan Hickmott took a one-timer shot from Jesse Craige, beating a screened Peters to give Alberta their first lead of the game.

Saint Mary’s held off the Bears for the remainder of the penalty and came back with a goal of their own from fourth-year Cory Tanaka. The goal sparked SMU, and only 29 seconds after Tanaka’s marker, they banked their third goal courtesy of Michael Stickland, who accepted a pass from Brad Smith.

Three goals on just seven shots against Alberta prompted Herbers to let Mucha watch the rest of the game from the bench in exchange for back-up goalie Réal Cyr.

Cyr stayed solid in the third period and Alberta managed to tie the game once again with a goal from third-year forward Johnny Lazo. Regulation finished with the game at an even 3-3 draw, forcing the teams into overtime.

The Golden Bears didn’t waste any time in the extra frame. Just under three minutes into the extra frame, Koper carried the puck up the ice from his own zone and ripped a shot past Peters from the right-side hashmarks.

Saint Mary’s now faces off against Waterloo Saturday at 1:30 p.m. SMU head coach Trevor Stienburg thinks the team needs to get back to their gritty style of play for their next game.

“We’re usually playing like a pack of dogs… and that wasn’t us tonight,” Stienburg said. “We don’t have to go back to the blackboard; we just have to remember who we are.”

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Photo: Josh Schaefer/CIS University Cup