VANCOUVER – Adam Kydd scored the only goal of a shootout as the Calgary Dinos exacted some revenge with a 4-3 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds in the 2024-25 Canada West season opener Friday night in Vancouver.
 
It was a fitting way to end the rematch of last year's Canada West Final which went the distance, UBC celebrating their championship victory Friday night by raising the 2023-24 conference banner to the rafters of the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
 
Tied 2-2 after two, Dinos Captain Noah King scored on the power play to put the visitors in front by one at the 4:09 mark, a lead that would last less than four minutes before Sasha Mutala sniped on the power play to tie the game up once again, eventually forcing overtime and then the shootout.
 
Carl Tetachuk stopped UBC's first shootout attempt before Kydd beat Cole Schwebius for the eventual game deciding goal as the Dinos took the first of six meetings this season between last year's conference finalists.
 
The Dinos ended the game 2-for-8 on the power play while the T-Birds went 1-for-5 in what was a bit of a feisty affair.
 
Rookie forward Carson Latimer got the 2000-plus strong crowd on their feet early with the game opening goal just 4:24 into the first, the former rookie's first career tally as a T-Bird.
 
After holding the slight edge in play in the opening frame, the 'Birds were on their heels to start the second with the Dinos managing to take the lead within a 30 second span.
 
44 seconds into the middle frame, Jake Poole scored the Dinos first goal of the season. Colson Gengenbach then scored the go-ahead goal on a power play off a one-timer pass from Zach Whytinck.
 
Before the period was out, second-year T-Bird Jake Wright sniped a beauty, far side past Tetachuk for his first in the blue and gold, taking advantage of a Liam Kindree takeaway in the neutral zone, setting up the entertaining final frame – and then some.

Tetachek finished the night making 30 saves, while Schwebius was credited with 23 saves in the loss.

The two teams are right back at in Saturday afternoon with a 4 p.m. scheduled start for the rematch.

-UC-