CALGARY – Connor Bouchard and Clayton Hanus both scored on power plays and Shane Farkas made 27 saves to lead the Mount Royal Cougars to a 2-1 win over the University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey team Thursday night from Father David Bauer Arena.

The loss is the first in the regular season for the Dinos in almost a full calendar year, last falling back on Oct. 14, 2022 at Mount Royal, snapping a 27-game win streak by Calgary.

"They (Mount Royal) won way more battles than us and this is a valuable lesson we need to learn from," Calgary head coach Mark Howell said after the game. "In our league, it doesn't matter who you have on your lineup, if you don't play hard and compete, you're not going to win. I think we didn't have enough guys ready to win races and battles and they had the puck more than we did."

Thursday's game saw a slow start by both teams, feeling each other out in the early rivalry showdown.

After a scoreless first period, the Cougars broke through early in the second. After staving off a Dinos shorthanded attack, MRU got the puck back and made the most of their power play. Bouchard carried the puck from his own end all the way in front of the net and, after battling a defender, was able to get a backhanded shot off that just found a way into the back of the net with 14:47 left in the second.

The score would remain the same after a choppy second period until early in the third when MRU struck again, once again on the power play. Connor Blake received a pass of the face off and sent it across to Hanus on the left side of the ice. Hanus took a shot from near the blue line and snuck it in the goal to double the lead at 2-0 with just under 12 minutes remaining.

From there, the Dinos showed more urgency and generated dangerous scoring chances.

Calgary finally broke through with just over five minutes remaining off the stick of Arjun Atwal. Dakota Krebs took a pass from the face off in the MRU zone and sent it across to Brendan De Jong, who fired a shot on net. Farkas was able to get a blocker to it, but Atwal was there for the rebound to cut the deficit to 2-1.

But, the Dinos comeback effort just ran out of time as the Cougars iced this one away to snap their rivals long win streak at 27.

The two teams finished tied with 28 shots apiece, with Calgary carrying a 13-4 edge in the final period.

"We need to remember what it's going to take, and Saturday we need more guys to answer the bell and show up," Howell said. "It doesn't matter what level you get to, if you don't play hard, you're not going to win games. There are a lot of guys in the locker room that know they could've played better."

The Dinos and Cougars will take the ice once again on Saturday at 7 p.m. from the Flames Community Arenas. 

-UC-