CALGARY – The 2023 Canada West Final is heading to a decisive Game 3.

After the No. 1 University of Calgary Dinos scored four third-period goals to force overtime, Josh Prokop capitalized on an odd-man rush to even the series and give the No. 5 Alberta Golden Bears a 5-4 win on Saturday night.

Following a tentative first 15 minutes, the Golden Bears managed a pair of late first-period goals by Adam Hall and Dawson Davidson to stun the crowd of 1,101 at Father David Bauer Arena.

That momentum carried into the second period where Alberta continued to be efficient with the chances Calgary gave them. Prokop picked up his first goal of the game at the 7:16 mark of the second, while Davidson connected on the power play for his second. The fourth Alberta goal was enough to chase Dinos netminder Carl Tetachuk from the net after nine shots faced.

"We were a little too far away from the puck in the first two periods," Calgary head coach Mark Howell said. "We were around it, but just didn't win enough battles to keep the offence going." 

Nevertheless, the Dinos came out firing in the third period, with Bradley Schoonbaert breaking the shutout bid by driving to the net and burying a loose puck less than five minutes into the frame.

Moments later on the power play, Zach Wytinck set up Connor Gutenberg who showed patience before wristing a shot past Alberta goaltender Ethan Kruger to cut the deficit to two.

A Riley Stotts breakaway with less than eight minutes to play made it a one-goal game, and then with the goaltender pulled, Schoonbaert won a battle in front of the net and sent the arena into a frenzy with an improbable tying goal with just 21 seconds left in regulation. 

"We didn't give up much all game," Howell said. "Going into the third period we gave up 10 shots and then we only gave up four or five pucks to the net in the third and it was obviously an unbelievable comeback. We scored around the 16-minute mark and then got another really important one and from there you could tell the bench really believed what we were going to do and they got hungry." 

However, at just 1:47 into overtime, on a three-on-one play, Prokop extinguished the comeback and extended the series.

"As we know, overtime is always about a bounce or an opportunity, and they got the bounce they needed and they executed the play and put the puck in the back of the net," Howell said. 

The Canada West champion will be crowned on Sunday at Father David Bauer Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. in Game 3 of the conference final with tickets on sale now at GoDinos.com/BuyTickets.

-UC-