CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos women's hockey team fell to the UBC Thunderbirds 5-2 in their season opener at Father David Bauer Arena on Friday night.

Both teams started their respective seasons fully energized, playing at a fast pace and scoring a total of three goals in just the first 10 minutes of the game.

After a turnover in the neutral zone just two minutes into the contest, the Thunderbirds would open the scoring with third-year forward Chanreet Bassi scoring off a backhand shot. 

But the Dinos quickly responded with a two-on-one play ending with third-year forward Rebecca Clarke finishing a rebound off a shot by her teammate Brette Kerley. 

Calgary took their first lead of the night when rookie forward Jolie Nafziger scored her first goal as a Dino off a rebound from Clarke and displayed excellent patience to find the hole and get the puck past the UBC netminder.  

After getting their first-period jitters out of their systems there was tight, but aggressive, back-and-forth action.

Notably, Gabriella Durante acted like a brick wall with several great saves, with one being a beautiful stretching split save off a breakaway and another quick cross-crease save to ensure the Dinos held their lead. 

However, with just under a minute left in the second, UBC's Mia Bierd scored a shorthanded goal by finishing her rebound and tied up the game. 

Just before the halfway mark of the third period, the Thunderbirds took the lead with a wrist shot from forward Ireland Perrott.

Perrott extended her team's lead with a power play goal fighting threw a scramble in front of the net to finish the play.

UBC's Cassidy Rhodes would seal the deal by scoring an empty net goal in the last minute of the game. 

Durante notched 23 saves in the loss while Elise Hugens stopped 28 shots for the Thunderbirds.

"It was a really good start, the first period was really good, one of our best showings even compared to last year," fourth-year defender Dana Wood explained. "Tomorrow we are going to focus on doing the little things we were doing today, we talked about playing the full 60 minutes and capitalizing on powerplays and getting those bouncing pucks. Also, there were a lot of backdoor passes that we missed by an inch, and we want to put those home tomorrow." 

The teams will play each other again Saturday at Father David Bauer Arena. Puck drops at 3 p.m. and will be streamed live on Canada West TV.