CALGARY – With another hard-fought series behind them, the University of Calgary Dinos will play for the Canada West Championship against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies this weekend at the Rutherford Rink in Saskatoon.

The series begins Friday, March 9 with Game 2 the next evening. If necessary, Game 3 will be take place on the Sunday night. Puck drop for all games this weekend is 6 p.m. MT. CanadaWest.tv will have live streaming coverage of the series.

After a 15-11-2 regular season that saw them enter the playoffs as the fourth-seed, the Dinos have become quite the story out of the Canada West. Calgary lost the first game of their opening round series against the UBC Thunderbirds before pulling off two straight wins to advance to Winnipeg.

There weren't many people that would have predicted the Dinos to beat the Manitoba Bisons in the second round after Calgary only managed one win in six contests against the conference's top team. With some help from fluky goal by Blake Clement, Calgary was able to take the first game 2-1. Game 2 went back-and-forth before the Bisons forced overtime with a goal in the last two minutes. In the extra frame, Brock Nixon won the game on a shorthanded two-on-one as he scored his second straight series victory in Martin Gelinas-like fashion.

The journey to the finals has been no less special for Saskatchewan, which is back in the big dance for the first time since 2009. The Huskies began the postseason by sweeping the Lethbridge Pronghorns by scores of 4-2 and 10-3. Game 1 of the semi-final round didn't go as well for Saskatchewan as the rested Alberta Golden Bears pounced on them for a 7-3 victory. With David Reekie struggling in the opening game, the Huskies turned to second-year goaltender Ryan Holfeld who made 36 saves on route to a 3-2 overtime win capped off by Kyle Bortis.

To everyone's surprise, Reekie was back in net for the beginning of Game 3, but Alberta chased him from the net with two early goals. The match eventually went on into overtime where Brennan Bosch netted his second of the night on the power play to wrap up the series for the Huskies. The loss for Alberta ended their streak of 16 straight appearances in the Canada West Final.

It is the first time the Dinos have made back-to-back appearances in the conference finals since 1995 and 1996. This series will also mark the first time Calgary and Saskatchewan have faced off for the Canada West title since 1987. The Dinos and Huskies met last year's playoffs in the semi-finals where Calgary picked up a 4-1 win in Game 3 to advance to the finals against Alberta.  Much like that series a year ago, the winner will gain a birth in the University Cup. In 2010-11, The Dinos earned a trip to Fredericton because the Canada West had two spots in the tournament.

The Dinos won all four meetings during the regular season against the Huskies. The first set of games was played at Father David Bauer where Calgary used a comeback to pick up two points on the Friday night, followed up with an overtime victory off the stick of Jorgensen on Saturday. At the risk of having to play their entire postseason on the road, the Dinos had their final road games of the season in Saskatoon at the beginning of February. Dustin Butler proved to be the difference in the two games as the Calgary goaltender had his third shutout of the season and earned CIS male athlete of the week for his efforts in the series.

Derek Hulak was the top scorer in the head-to-head series between Dinos and Huskies. The Saskatchewan forward potted a goal along with four assists in four games. Teigan Zahn (2g 1a), Jorgensen (1g 2a), and Taylor Stefishen (1g 2a) all tied for the Calgary lead with three points each against Saskatchewan. Similar to the regular season, Kyle Ross (2g 7a), Bortis (5g 3a), Hulak (1g 6a) lead the playoffs in scoring, while Nixon (4g 2a) is the top scorer for the Dinos in four postseason games.

The winner of this series moves onto the University of Cup in Fredericton, N.B. Unlike last season when the Dinos and Golden Bears both went, only one team out of the Canada West will be heading out east.

-UC-