BOX SCORE

WINNIPEG - Reid Jorgensen and Blake Clement scored while Dustin Butler stopped 32 shots as the University of Calgary Dinos drew first blood in their best-of-three Canada West semi-final series with a 2-1 win over Manitoba Friday night.

The best-of-three series continues Saturday at 6 p.m. MT, when the Dinos will look to book a trip to their second straight Canada West final. Should the Bisons rebound to force Game 3, it will go Sunday, also at 6 p.m. MT. CanadaWest.tv will have live coverage of the series.

Despite posting a 5-0-1 record over the Dinos through the regular season, the Bisons couldn't solve Butler, the 2011 CIS goaltender of the year, while Calgary finally got a goal past Manitoba netmider Joe Caligiuri.

Manitoba's only goal was netted by Jared Walker on a highlight-reel breakaway move, and goalie Joe Caligiuri made 28 saves.

The first period was all about defence, as both teams had great opportunities to get on the board but more shots were being blocked and deflected than were getting on net.  Both teams brought the physical game as was expected with the high-stakes playoff atmosphere.  

The Bisons enjoyed four power plays in the first, but couldn't manage to capitalize on a single one. Calgary enjoyed a few man-advantages of its own, and as the opening period concluded with no score for either team, the Dinos had about 40 seconds of a power play to work with to open the second.

After posting a sensational regular season record over Calgary, the Bisons looked to be almost caught off guard by their opponents coming into the second period, and simply didn't know how to handle them.

Just as Manitoba's penalty was coming to an end in the opening minute of the second, Jorgensen got his stick on the puck during a scrum in front of the Bisons' net, and on their first official shot of the period, Calgary took a 1-0 lead.

Despite four penalties to the Dinos and five to Manitoba, neither team could manage a goal with the man-advantage, as had been the story all game long. The Bisons only managed a couple of shots on goal until the final minutes of the third period, as Calgary continued to throw bodies and sticks in front of pucks, and prevent shots from getting through to the net.

It was obvious that Manitoba would need to adjust their game plan in order to come away with a win, but they simply weren't able to do so before the horn sounded to end the second, with the Dinos ahead on the scoreboard.  Down 1-0 at the end of two, the Bisons needed to come into the third with a brand new game plan if they wanted to take the lead in this series.

Manitoba looked strong coming into the third period, generating a quick few shots on net, which was a nice change from the last two periods, in which they struggled to generate much offense.

Things took a turn for the worse, though, when the Dinos' Blake Clement lobbed a shot toward Caligiuri, in order to get a line change. Caligiuri mishandled the puck, and it trickled through his five-hole and into the cage, putting Calgary up 2-0 early in the third.

With less than three minutes left in the game for the Bisons to try and make up the deficit, Jared Walker was hauled down on a breakaway, and Manitoba would have a shorthanded penalty shot to get within a goal.

Walker came in slow on Butler and pulled a spin-o-rama at the last second, burying a backhand shot into the open net, getting his team to 2-1 with a few minutes left in the period.

In the end, the soft goal let in by Caligiuri was the game-winner, as Manitoba couldn't tie things up before the end of the period, completing the monumental upset for the Dinos, who took the 2-1 win in regulation.

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