LETHBRIDGE - The University of Calgary Dinos Men's Hockey team worked back into the win column after beating the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns 5-3 Friday night at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
Calgary opened the scoring 6:14 into the opening frame after a Pronghorn turnover hemmed them in their own end. Mac Colasimone's centering attempt found its way into the back of the net for his first goal of the season, with the assists going to Darcy DeRoose and Chris Collins.
The Dinos kept the pressure on the Pronghorns, forcing more turnovers early on,, leading to many odd man rushes. At the 14:39 mark Elgin Pearce added to the Dinos lead, capitalizing on a rebound after he made a nice back pass to DeRoose.
The Pronghorns would answer a couple minutes later when forward Dalton Sward converted on a shorthanded breakaway, squeaking the puck past Steven Stanford. This switched the momentum in the Pronghorns favour, as they headed into the first intermission down by only one.
Early into the second, the Pronghorns tied it up after a broken play resulted in the puck ricocheting right to forward Justin Valentino. The rest of the period was back and forth, with both teams failing to string shifts together.
With the second period winding down, Pearce would score his second goal of the night, converting on the powerplay after a nice cross seam pass from Dylan Busenius.
Coach Mark Howell praised Pearce post game. ""I thought he played his best game tonight, scoring those two goals. But its more than that, its blocking shots, getting in the lanes, when he's on the right side of the puck good things are going to happen for him".
Calgary would never relinquish the lead the rest of the game, with Chris Collins and Cain Franson adding markers in the third period. The Pronghorns would score in the final minute with Evan Wardley sending home a one-timer, but it was too late, with the Dinos rolling to a 5-3 win, despite being outshot 32-25.
The Dinos finished the night 2-4 on the powerplay and were a perfect 4-4 on penalty kills.
Howell credited his team's success to special teams. "When you get to this level, you need to have solid special teams to be successful. Tonight we gave up the short handed goal early, but then I felt the powerplay settled in and was solid, and our penalty kill was solid as well."
He also added these comments about the win. "Our seasons so short, so to have a 2 game losing streak, it's critical to snap those as quickly as you can. And anytime you go into someone else's rink and pick up a win its huge."
The Dinos (3-2-0) will look to build off this win as they complete the home-and-home weekend series against the Pronghorns (2-1-1) tomorrow night at the Father David Bauer Arena. The puck drops at 6 p.m.
