CALGARY – With the Canada West playoffs just around the corner, the Calgary Dinos managed to nab an important victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies by a score of 2-1 at the Olympic Oval Saturday night.

BOX SCORE

The Dinos opened the game looking to bounce back after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Huskies on Friday night.

With that in mind they struck early, with Jenna Smith netting the first goal of the game 9:33 into the first. That goal came on the Dinos' first shot of the tilt after both teams traded offensive barbs in the first nine minutes with little success as shots were blocked in front of both nets or were tipped wide before reaching the goalie. That goal was set up by a Dinos attack where Cait O'Hara and Kira Sonnenberg fed Smith on the rush before the rookie forward teed up a slapshot from the high slot and beat Saskatchewan goalie Mackenzie Rizos, top corner, over the blocker.

Both Rizos and Calgary goalie Amanda Tapp were subjected to a significantly higher workload in the remainder of the first as they ended the period with eight and five shots against, respectively.

Saskatchewan would respond in the second period with a goal by Sara White. That goal was set up by a series of Saskatchewan rushes late in the period that had Tapp standing on her head to keep her team in the lead. White would best Tapp's effort at 14:44 when her first sprawling save denied the initial shot to the right of her net before the Saskatchewan forward lobbed the free puck over the Calgary netminder and  tied the game.

The game winning goal came 6:16 into the third period when an impressive individual effort from Dinos assistant captain Melissa Zubick who broke into the zone and ripped a shot into the pads of Rizos. Picking up her own rebound, Zubick wristed the rubber into the back of the Huskies' net for her second goal of the year.

“We had a decent first period, an awful second period and we battled back in the third,” Dinos head coach Danielle Goyette commented after the game.

When the dust settled, each team had taken 20 shots with Tapp turning away 18 of those while Rizos stopped 17.

On the power play, the Dinos went without a goal on four attempts while the Huskies failed to score on three advantages.

The win improves the Dinos record to 14-5-2, for 30 points on the season. Having already guaranteed themselves a playoff spot, the Dinos head into their final two games of the season with a good chance to host one of the two Canada West semi-finals. Saskatchewan is one of the teams chasing them as they enter the last two weeks of the regular season with their 12-7-1 record, 25 points worth, tying them with the Manitoba Bisons.

“We needed these two points going into next weekend,” said Goyette. “We can't wait for other teams to lose for us if we want to host a semi-final. Now we are in charge of our own destiny.

“We can't go into next weekend thinking we only need one win though, what happens next week will set the stage for how we go into the playoffs.”

The Dinos close out the regular season next weekend when they travel to Manitoba for a pair of road games at Max Bell Arena in Winnipeg – a trip that will include the completion of the Nov. 12 shootout that was suspended after a Calgary protest was upheld by Canada West.

Saskatchewan, meanwhile, hosts UBC next weekend before closing out the season with a trip to first-place Alberta.

-UC-