CALGARY – After the University of Calgary Dinos had a commanding 4-0 victory last night over the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, the T-birds pulled out a victory of their own tonight as they defeated the Dinos 4-2.

The T-birds came out to a 3-0 lead after the first two periods and, despite pulling within one in the third, the Dinos were unable to complete the comeback to split the weekend series. UBC improved to 8-8 on the season with the win, while the Dinos dropped to 5-11.

"I thought we were going to come back at the end, we just made too many mistakes, too many turnovers, we just weren't able to replicate what we did last night," explained Dinos forward, Danny Gayle.    

The Thunderbirds got on the board first late in the opening frame. With the Dinos a man short, Nick Buonassisi hit Austin Vetterl with a centering pass, who beat the screened Dinos goaltender, Steven Stanford, with a wrist shot low glove side to give UBC a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

UBC extended their lead early in the second when Dillon Wegner tipped Buonassisi's shot into the net to make it 2-0. The T-birds picked up another power play goal late in the second as Vetterl's cross ice pass set up Anthony Bardaro who fired a slap shot past Stanford to put his team up 3-0 going into the final frame. 

The Dinos answered back in the third period when Danny Gayle buried a rebound off of Chris Collins' shot just past the midway point in the period. 

"I just dumped it in and Collins made a good play with a strong shot on net and it was just sitting there, so it was pretty easy to tap in," said Gayle.

Collins and Gayle combined for another goal to put the Dinos within one as Collins roofed a backhand shot off a pass from Gayle from behind the net. UBC got another one with 4:22 remaining when Robinson found the back of the net on a pass from Hamilton, to give the T-birds a 4-2 victory.

The Dinos return to action in the New Year when they travel to Regina to battle the University of Regina Cougars, January 8-9, where they hope to improve on their record from the first half of the season. 

"It's just about everybody buying into the system," said Gayle. "We have the skills, we have the desire, we just need to stick to our game plan and keep things simple. I think if we do that we'll be okay."  

The T-birds will be back in Calgary taking on Mount Royal University, January 8-9.    

-UC-