CALGARY – A 4-1 win over the Manitoba Bisons clinched a major milestone for University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey head coach Mark Howell.

With Friday's victory, Howell notches his 246th win and becomes the program's winningest coach. He passes Dinos Hall of Famer Dr. George Kingston and simultaneously moves into fourth place on the Canada West men's hockey all-time list. 

"George Kingston is a legend in the game, so to pass him and be in the same breath as him is a little bit surreal," said Howell. "We've had some great players here, and you don't win without great players. It's exciting, and I'm very humbled to be in the same conversation as George."

The win sees Calgary improve to 7-5-1-0, while Manitoba falls to 2-7-1-1.

Following a slow start for both teams, it took until the final five minutes for the puck to reach the back of the net for the first time. Starting at his own end, Bisons forward Caden Zaplitny went end-to-end and scored unassisted with a wrist shot that beat netminder Carl Tetachuk from a tight angle.

Despite outshooting the Bisons 14-3 in the first period, the Dinos found themselves trailing after 20 minutes. But Calgary responded five minutes into the second period with the first of four unanswered goals. 

With an aggressive penalty kill, Jadon Joseph won a battle along the far boards and forced the puck into the middle of the ice. This produced a wide-open scoring chance where Connor Gutenberg set up Sean Strange for a game-tying shorthanded tally.

"I feel pretty good, especially coming back off an injury. We didn't have a good two games in UBC, so to come back home and get that win, and especially get that goal for me, it was really good," explained Strange.

The Dinos took their first lead of the game halfway through the middle frame.

After a turnover in the Bisons defensive zone, Max Patterson made a beautiful backhanded pass to an unguarded Jake Gricius in front of the crease. The veteran forward had no problem finding a spot behind Bisons goaltender Braden Holt.

That one-goal lead was doubled minutes later when the Dinos were again on the penalty kill. Joseph was the architect of the second shorthanded goal with a slick maneuver around the Bisons defence before making a drop-pass to Dallon Melin for an easy tap-in.

"We came out in the second playing a lot better. We didn't really have a great first, so after the intermission, we came out and fixed a lot of things and just had a better period," commented Strange. "We'll definitely want to continue the momentum from the second and third period into tomorrow and start on the right foot."

The Dinos' power play closed out the game early in the third period with a goal from Colson Gengenbach as he skated through the left faceoff circle and wired a shot past Holt to make it 4-1.

"I thought we grew today in the game; we got better, our power play scored, we scored two shorthanded goals," stated Howell.  "Tomorrow, we should be positive and excited. Our details got better as the game went on; we got more physical, we got stronger on the puck, the little things we always talk about."

The Dinos and Bisons take to the ice for a rematch on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Father David Bauer Arena.

-UC-