CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos jumped out to a 4-0 lead en route to a home-opening 4-1 win over the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday evening at Father David Bauer Arena.
The Dinos' strong power play performance and
Matt Alfaro's continued hot streak led the Dinos to the victory, improving them to 3-0-0 on the season.
"We worked a lot on [the power play] in the last two weeks, give our guys credit, they executed they made plays," said Dinos Head Coach
Mark Howell. "On the power play you've got to make plays and our guys did a good job, we took what they gave us and executed."
The Dinos put pressure on UBC early on, keeping play mostly in the Thunderbirds defensive zone. Early penalty trouble for UBC gave Calgary the advantage they needed to get on the board. Alfaro opened the scoring on the man advantage 8:05 into the period, receiving a pass from
Graham Black and firing a wrist shot through a screen past UBC goalie Rylan Toth for his fifth goal of the season.
"I came into [this season] with a bunch of confidence, the way second half last year and kind of just rolling that into this year," said Alfaro on his hot start to the season. "I got off to a great start on the first game, and that is the key for me, is just playing with confidence and playing with great teammates."
Not easing on the pressure, the Dinos increased their lead to 2-0 on the power play again.
TJ Brown fired a shot at net from the right of Toth, the rebound popped out in front and was fired home by
Logan Fisher, waiting in the slot. Less than a minute after Fisher goal,
Ryan Gagnon fired a shot at net off a faceoff win, and
Tim Vanstone tipped it in to increase the Dinos lead to 3-0.
UBC held the Calgary offence at bay for the first half of the second period and had its best chance of the game early in the second off a three-on-two chance by Quinn Benjafield. It was the Dinos who scored next on their first shot of the period when
Chris Rauckman fired a shot over the shoulder of Toth from the right hashmarks. UBC got on the board with five minutes remaining in the second frame when Tyler Sandhu carried the puck through the neutral zone and shot it past Dinos goalie Matthew Greenfield.
Despite chances for each team, both goalies remained perfect in the third period not letting anything past them. Rylan Toth stopped 15 of the 19 total shots he faced, and Matthew Greenfield picked up the win saving 19 of 20 shots.
UBC falls to 0-2-1 with the setback.
The rematch between Calgary and UBC will be held Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Father David Bauer Arena.
-UC-
