BOX SCORE CALGARY – The No. 1-ranked University of Calgary Dinos did all their scoring in the first period as they held on to beat the University of Manitoba Bisons 5-4 on Friday night at the Father David Bauer Arena.

Back in October, Manitoba was the first team to truly test the Dinos on their early season run through the conference. On Friday night, the Bisons became the first team to test Calgary on home ice as the road team came storming back before falling just short. Chris Collins' second goal of the game with mere seconds left in the first period stood as the game winning goal.

"We scored on opportunities in the first, but the one thing they have is speed. [Manitoba] is tenacious and they worked hard," said Dinos head coach Mark Howell. "In the second and third we stopped skating and let them skate. We took some penalties and weren't good on our penalty kill because we didn't work hard enough."

The win improves the Dinos' record to 18-0-1 while the Bisons fall to 9-11-1. These two teams will go head-to-head once again tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at the Father David Bauer Arena.

In the first period Calgary was able to jump out to an impressive 5-0 advantage, but it wouldn't have been possible without some strong goaltending by Kris Lazaruk. On the opening shift of the game, the Edmonton native was forced to turn aside a breakaway from Ian Duval as well as the rebound attempt by Aaron Lewadniuk. Lazaruk made six saves in the first period and finished the night with 27 in total.

Calgary's scoring brigade got started at the 3:13 mark. Kevin King banged in a loose puck in front of the blue paint for his third goal in as many games. The goal also gave King a five-game point streak.

The flood gates opened in the second half of the first frame as the Dinos grabbed a commanding lead. Collins netted two in the stanza to extend his conference-lead in goals to 16; while Spencer Edwards and Walker Wintoneak each potted singles under a minute apart on the power play.

At the 7:28 mark of the second period, Manitoba got on the scoreboard. Set-up in front of the net, Lewadniuk scored his 11th of the campaign with assists going to Duval and Jesse Paradis.

The Bisons had more chances to fill the net in the second with three power play opportunities. The away team outshot Calgary 12-2 in the frame but was unable to solve Lazaruk.

Manitoba continued to chip away at Calgary's lead in the third period, bringing them to the brink. Duval netted two power play goals along with another by Taylor Dickin as the score read 5-4 with under five minutes to go.

The visitors pulled their goaltender in the final minute but could not find another goal as the buzzer went to end the game.
Manitoba outshot Calgary in the game 31-22. The Dinos were 2-7 on the power play, while the Bisons went 3-7.

Next weekend the Dinos will head to the west coast where they will take on the UBC Thunderbirds in a two-game set from Jan. 24-25.

Manitoba will have a bye-week next weekend and will return to action on Jan. 31 as they begin a two-game set at home versus the Regina Cougars.

-UC-