Nov. 27, 2009

LOS ANGELES --- Sixth-seeded UC Irvine took No. 3 California to the limit but the Bears edged the Anteaters, 6-5, in a quarterfinal game of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Tournament at USC's McDonald's Swim Stadium Friday.

UCI jumped out to a 3-1 lead after one quarter on goals by Cole Bielskis, Brandon Johnson and Tom Kruip.

Both teams went scoreless in the second period before Cal scored a pair of third-quarter goals by Ivan Rackov (power-play at 5:34) and Luka Saponjic (2:13) to even the game at 3-3 entering the final quarter.

Charlie Steffens put the Bears up 4-3 at the 6:10 mark and Cory Nasoff extended the lead to 5-3 on a goal with 4:39 remaining.

Johnson cut the deficit to 5-4 with a goal at 1:49 but Rackov countered 23 seconds later to put Cal back up by two at 6-4.

Kruip scored a power-play goal with 1:03 left for the final 6-5 score.

Kruip and Johnson led the `Eaters (15-12) with two goals each. Junior goalie Matt Johnson recorded eight saves for UCI, which is ranked No. 6 in the nation this week.

Rackov led the Bears (21-5) with a pair of goals.

UCI faces UC Santa Barbara in a fifth-place bracket game Saturday at 11:00 a.m. The `Eaters have defeated the Gauchos in two previous meetings this season, 10-8 in a non-conference game at UCI Oct. 17, and 9-7 in an MPSF contest at Santa Barbara Nov. 14.

UC Irvine  3 - 0 - 0 - 2 --- 5
California  1 - 0 - 2 - 3 --- 6

UCI: Tom Kruip 2, Brandon Johnson 2, Cole Bielskis.

Saves: Matt Johnson (UCI) 8; Wil Toppen (Cal) 13.