CALGARY- The University of Calgary Dinos fell, 3-2 to the University of Manitoba Bisons, Saturday afternoon, Nov. 5th at the Father David Bauer Arena.
"We had a slow start yesterday, it's been two or three games in a row now that we have come out flat," explained Dinos' head coach Mark Howell. "You get down three-nothing, that's a tough hole to dig out of. I thought our second period was outstanding, in the third period I think we assumed because we had come back in the last couple of games that it would be easy."
Manitoba came out with a vengeance after yesterday's 4-3 loss. Scoring three goals, two of which were power play goals in the first period.
"Your penalty kill isn't going to be very good when you're not focused and we took some bad penalties because we weren't focused, stick penalties, reaching penalties," stated Howell on the first period special teams. "We weren't very mentally sharp."
Brad Bowles and Chad Bresciani worked the puck along the boards on the power play, before Bresciani fired a low slap shot from the point, on net. Shaq Merasty tipped the shot past Dinos' goaltender Coleman Vollrath for the first of the game.
The Bisons continued to catch the Dinos flat footed. On a centre ice regroup, Sean Christensen hit S. Bowles with a pass. Bowles walked in and released a wrist shot at the hash marks low blocker side, and in.
Manitoba would increase its lead once more on the power play, before the end of the period. Brett Dubar stepped off the half-wall, passed to Merasty down low who turned and passed to Justin Augert out front. Augert redirected the puck past Vollrath to end his afternoon in net.
Calgary looked to start the second period on a better note, scoring in the first few minutes. On the power play, Chris Collins hit a waiting Cain Franson in the high slot. Franson tipped the Collins pass over Bisons' goaltender Justin Paulic, to cut the Bisons lead to two.
The Dinos continued the attempted comeback mid-way through the period, again on the power play. Dinos' captain Dan Gibb stepped in from the point and sniped top shelf, glove side, through traffic and past Paulic.
Calgary tried to rally in the third period to complete the comeback but were halted by the Bisons.
"I thought we moved the puck around on the power play the best we have all year. I think it's more of a mental thing now, just understanding the urgency and the determination you have to play with for 60 minutes and we haven't had that yet," said Howell. "We need to find a bit of mental toughness to see where we want our game to be regardless of the opposition."
Manitoba will travel to Lethbridge, Alta. next weekend to take on the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns in a two game series, Nov.11-12th.
The Dinos will play a home-and-home series against the University of Alberta Golden Bears next weekend, Nov. 11-12th. The Dinos will play the Golden Bears in Edmonton, Friday evening before returning to home ice Saturday evening. Puck will drop at 6 p.m. for Saturday, Nov.12th game.
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