BOX SCORE
CALGARY – Friday night's contest had anything and everything you would hope for in a hockey game as the University of Calgary Dinos came from behind to defeat the No. 4-ranked University of Manitoba Bisons 5-4 in overtime at Father David Bauer Arena.
The victory keeps the Dinos in fourth place in the Canada West standings. With one more game on the season, Calgary is up four points on the UBC Thunderbirds, who lost their game Friday against the Saskatchewan Huskies. The Thunderbirds will play the Bisons next week while Calgary waits to see where their first-round series is played – the only thing that's certain is that they will play UBC in the opening round in a series that could still be in either Calgary or Vancouver.
The first period was a wild one as more goals were scored in 20 minutes of play then in the entire two-game set these two teams played back at the beginning of the season in Calgary.
Chris Benias and Tyler Dittmer opened up a 2-0 lead early for Manitoba as they were able to elude
Dustin Butler with quick shots in the first five minutes.
Last week's CIS male athlete of the week for his performance in a sweep of Saskatchewan, Butler was pulled less than six minutes into the contest as
Kris Lazaruk came into the game with 14:15 left in the opening frame.
The goaltending change seemed to spark Calgary as they went on the power play for the first time. With his team pressing in the Bisons' zone,
Taylor Stefishen was able to put home a close attempt from just outside the blue paint to cut the lead in half. The tally at 6:40 was Stefishen's 12th of the year.
Nothing seemed to be able to stop Manitoba's early charge though as they would find the back of the net twice more before the game could reach the first intermission. Despite Brendan Rowinski and Blair Macaulay giving the Bisons a 4-1 lead, the Dinos led in shots 9-7 through the first stanza.
The Dinos came out looking any kind of improvement in the second period and would get the ball rolling at the 10:28 mark.
Brett Bartman's shot from the point was blocked by a defender, but Nixon was in the right place to stuff in his 10th of the campaign from the left side of the net.
Nixon almost added his second of the night minutes later as he broke out on a breakaway. The left-handed shooter went from left to right, but was stopped by the Manitoba's Mark Friesen.
Kevin King made it a one-goal game with less than two minutes to go in the middle frame. The first-year forward came in from the right side and put a backhand attempt on net. The shot banked off Friesen and in to give King his fourth in five games. The Bisons held a 4-3 advantage going into the final frame.
Calgary tied the score 4-4 just 58 seconds into the third period. During a scrum in front of the Bisons' net, fifth-year forward
Teegan Moore found a hole and scored his fourth of the season.
The Bisons had a chance to end the game in heartbreak for the home team with 1:58 to go in regulation as Del Cowan was rewarded a penalty shot after being knocked down on a breakaway. The opportunity was foiled as the former Calgary Hitman was stopped trying to beat Lazaruk blocker side, and the game would go into overtime.
With Manitoba taking a late penalty in the third period, Calgary had a 4-on-3 advantage to begin the extra frame. Just 57 seconds in,
Kodie Curran fed a pass to
Walker Wintoneak at the left faceoff dot where he one-timed the game winner through the pads of Friesen.
The Dinos outshot the Bisons 35-21. Calgary was 2-for-5 on the power play, while Manitoba went 0-for-1.
These two teams will meet up for a final time Saturday night as the Dinos close out their regular season with Seniors' Night at Father David Bauer Arena.
-UC-
