CALGARY — Brock Nixon's goal in the dying seconds of the middle period stood up as the eventual winner the University of Calgary Dinos defeated the Lethbridge Pronghorns 3-2 Monday night at the SAIT Challenge Cup.

The Dinos, who are 7-5-2 in Canada West action, still have a chance to finish atop tourney standings alongside the Alberta Golden Bears at 2-0.

Former SAIT goaltender Reese St. Goddard kept the Pronghorns in it right to the final whistle, making 40 saves in all.

Lethbridge took a 2-1 lead late in the first period on goals 52 seconds apart by Mason Conway and Ryan Pottruff. But Dinos forward Tyler Swystun evened the score at 2-2 early in the second period, and Nixon pounced on a rebound in the Lethbridge crease with 13.5 seconds remaining in the middle frame, backhanding the puck high over St. Goddard to make it 3-2.

The Dinos' Cory Pritz had opened the scoring 6:27 into the game. The Dinos peppered St. Goddard with 43 shots, while Calgary counterpart Dustin Butler faced 30 shots of his own.

The Challenge Cup, which annually pits CIS teams against those from the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC), has attracted a record four Canada West teams this year. The Cougars, 6-10-0 in Canada West, finish with a 1-1 record, while the Pronghorns (6-5-3), who won this tournament in 2009, close things out at 0-2.

The defending Challenge Cup champion Dinos (1-0) will meet the host Trojans (0-1), who are four-time defending ACAC champs, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at SAIT Arena. The Trojans, who won the first edition of their own Challenge Cup tournament in 2008, sit atop ACAC standings with a 12-2-2 logbook.

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