CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos scored six unanswered goals against the Lethbridge Pronghorns earning a 6-1 decision in their final game of the regular season at the Nicholas Sheran Arena.
Emotions flared up in the second period and continued throughout the remainder of game, with the final scoresheet tallying 88 combined penalty minutes between the two schools.
One of the bright spots for the Pronghorns was graduating player Spenser Jensen, whose goal was Lethbridge's only tally of the game. The Dinos were led by a two-goal second-period performance from
Ryan Graham that all but buried the Pronghorns hopes of a comeback.
Dinos netminder
Brodan Salmond was excellent in net, turning aside 27 of the 28 shots he faced helping his team secure the win. Counterpart Jack Burgart made 39 saves in the losing outing.
From the opening puck drop, Calgary took commanding control of the game, as play was spent in the Pronghorns zone for most of the opening half-frame. Calgary had an 8-1 shots advantage before the Pronghorns had an opportunity to open the scoring. Entering the Dinos zone, Luke Coleman sent a heavy pass across the ice to Brooks Maxwell that bounced off the boards and back to Maxwell. His shot on Salmond was deflected into the net by Jensen behind the netminder's pad to give the Pronghorns the lead.
The Dinos needed less than two minutes to respond thanks to a solid effort by
Tim Vanstone, whose strong puck possession skills were on full display throughout the Pronghorns zone. Vanstone weaved around everyone to get to the blocker side of Burgart before dishing to
Luke Harrison on Burgart's glove side for an easy tap-in.
The visiting team continued their momentum swing with another goal under two minutes following their tying marker.
Kaden Elder forced a turnover at the nearside half-boards that saw the puck end up on
Matt Alfaro's stick, and he returned the pass to Elder to put the puck behind an out-of-position Burgart, taking the lead.
Period two was much more evenly fared, as teams were even on the shots-on-goal clock at the halfway point of the game. Both teams had one power play opportunity in the opening half of the frame, but both teams successfully defended their ends. Calgary took a second penalty crossing the halfway point and successfully defended that as well.
Calgary seemed to come back to life in the closing minutes of the second, as Graham scored two goals inside the final five minutes to widen the lead for his side.
Following a set power play breakout by the Dinos, Harrison controlled the puck at the far side point and dished it to Graham, whose shot from the near-side faceoff dot found twine above the glove of Burgart.
The third period was all in Calgary's favour, scoring a goal in the opening five minutes of the third and another inside the last four minutes of the frame. The first of the goals was kickstarted by Vanstone gathering the loose puck in the Lethbridge end and dishing it to
Ryan Gagnon, who put it top shelf on Burgart. The final goal of the game was a laser of a shot from
Mitch Cook, who took the puck from inside his own zone to the top of the far-side faceoff circle and wired one far-side blocker on Burgart.
With the win, the Calgary Dinos (18-7-3, 39 pts) finish their season in third place, set to face off against the sixth place Manitoba Bisons (9-15-4, 22 pts) in the first round of the Canada West conference playoffs, while the Lethbridge Pronghorns (5-20-3, 13 pts) conclude their season in the conference's bottom spot.
