CALGARY – Pushed by two goals from Brock Nixon and Aaron Richards, the No. 7 Calgary Dinos stayed the course on Friday in beating the Lethbridge Pronghorns by a score of 5-2, and inched one step closer to a home playoff series.
BOX SCORE
With the victory, Calgary stayed two points up on third place Saskatchewan, who blitzed the Manitoba Bisons earlier on Friday by a score of 6-3. The Dinos now need only one point in tomorrow's rematch against Lethbridge, who desperately needs points themselves to secure a playoff bid, to ensure a home-ice in the first round of the postseason next weekend.
Calgary can also secure the home playoff bid with anything less than a Saskatchewan victory tomorrow. Should Calgary lose and the Huskies win, Saskatchewan would take second place by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Lethbridge and Manitoba battle for fourth place, a spot the Bisons currently inhabit by a point's advantage over the 'Horns. Lethbridge needs a victory over Calgary and a Saskatchewan regulation victory to clinch the playoff spot, as they are edged out as well in the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Stuck with that pressure of needing victories to help cement a playoff berth, the Lethbridge Pronghorns caught an early break on their first “shot” of Friday's game. With the Dinos on their heels, captain Dustin Moore circled around the back of Dustin Butler's net only to launch it across the crease, ricocheting it off of Andrew Courtenay's skate. The puck trickled across the goal-line with only 31 seconds removed from the clock, giving the 'Horns the early lead.
Unfazed, Calgary soldiered forward and was rewarded on the penalty kill 16 minutes later, as Brock Nixon forced a rebound home off of Tyler Swystun's initial close-range shot. The conversion on the two-on-two situation tied the game up at 1-1, which held until the intermission.
The Dinos would get two more in the second period courtesy of the Reid Jorgensen-Aaron Richards-Walker Wintoneak forward line. Jorgensen would one-time a shot from in close for his 17th of the season, just moments after Nixon missed on a glorious opportunity with a wide open net. Richards would convert at 16:52 from the right side of Pronghorns goaltender Scott Bowles, taking the pass from Jorgensen to make it 3-1.
Calgary would have their lead cut to 3-2 by the second intermission, as they couldn't clear the big body of Tyler Feakes from in front of Butler with Joel Eisenkirch in the penalty box. Feakes tipped in the initial Nicholas Hotson shot for his third of the season.
Slipping behind the Lethbridge defence, Nixon breezed a terrific slap-shot past Bowles in the third period, which put Calgary in the driver's seat, where they would withstand 13 third period shots from Lethbridge to preserve the victory. Richards would get his second goal of the game late on an empty-net strike.
Butler made 23 saves in the victory, while Bowles made 26 on thirty shots faced for the Pronghorns.
Assistant Coach Cory Cross credited Calgary's resolve against a desperate Lethbridge team.
“They came out really hard to start, but we didn't let that early goal rattle us,” said Cross, who played for 12 years in the NHL as a defenceman.
“After that though I thought we played real well and real simple, and we buried our chances,” continued Cross. “They did take the game over in the third but Butler was excellent.”
Calgary and Lethbridge resume play tomorrow night at Father David Bauer Arena in the pivotal match-up, where the puck is set to drop at 7 p.m. Calgary will honour their fifth-year seniors in a ceremony prior to the game.
-UC-
