EDMONTON - Jakin Smallwood scored a hat-trick to lead the Alberta Golden Bears to a massive 7-2 victory over the Trinity Western Spartans Friday night at the Saville Centre.

It was a happy new year indeed for the Bears, who rang in 2024 with the win to move them to  13-4-2 and currently sit at third place in the Canada West. They also extend an eight-game point streak. He was flanked by Justin Hall, who had two goals and an assist in an impressive offensive showing for the home side.

The Spartans drop their seventh straight to slide to an overall record of 2-14-1, good for 8th in the conference. They saw a goal apiece from Aidan Steinke and Josh Borynec.

It was a quiet first period, featuring some impressive penalty kills from both sides, until third-year Steinke potted home a backhand on a puck that scooted out from behind the net off of a referee's skate for his third of the year. The Spartans would maintain a 1-0 advantage through the end of the period, with netminder Leon Sommer stopping all 11 shots he faced.

The second was all Bears from the jump, maintaining offensive zone pressure for the vast majority of the period. This led to three Albera goals, with Daneel Lategan, Jakin Smallwood, and Justin Hall getting on the board with their fifth, seventh, and sixth of the season respectively. The last goal, the game winner, was a great piece of play from Hall and Mason Ward on a 2-on-1 that saw a Ward saucer pass find Hall's tape who promptly roofed it for a 2-goal lead that the Bears would take into the intermission. Alberta outshot Trinity Western by a 25-12 margin in the period.

The Bears did not wait long in the third to score again, as five minutes in, Smallwood buried his second of the game on a beautiful tic-tac-toe setup involving linemates Josh Prokop and Eric Florchuk. Hall would also pot his second of the game minutes later on the powerplay, giving Alberta a 5-1 lead halfway through the period. The Spartans would add one more in the frame courtesy of Borynec, but that was quickly nullified by Florchuk and Smallwood goals that would end the night at a final score of 7-2.

The teams return to action tomorrow for their last regular season meeting of the year.