CALGARY – Playing in front of a sold-out, record-breaking crowd of 13,139, the University of Calgary Dinos took a dominant 4-0 win against the Mount Royal Cougars in the annual Crowchild Classic at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

The Friday night matchup would go to set the U SPORTS attendance record for a men's hockey regular season matchup.

"The atmosphere – it gets us going and it's just really fun to play," said Dinos goaltender Carl Tetachuk, who posted 34 saves in his shutout against the city rivals. "It means a lot, especially having a little slow start to the season, so I definitely needed that shutout."

"It's awesome, especially for a lot of the fourth-year guys graduating this year to have a sold-out building in our last year," Jake Gricius added post-game regarding the attendance. "It's something that we will probably cherish for the rest of our lives."

Gricius broke open the scoring for the Dinos halfway through the first frame. A fumble in the Cougars end before their final rush on the powerplay is what initiated the chain of events, followed by a stolen puck off MRU's defense from Jadon Joseph. A quick dish to Gricius and the puck was popping over Shane Farkas' shoulder and into the back of the net for a Dinos shorthanded goal, and their first of the night. 

"It's always fun to score, especially in an environment like that," Gricius commented. "It was a great play by Joe (Jadon Joseph) to get it out there, and anytime you can score in front of a crowd like that, it's obviously super memorable."

A Cougars penalty in the eighth minute of the second period would continue to show Calgary's special teams' effectiveness. A few quick passes between Zach Wytinck and Connor Gutenberg allowed Dinos lead goal scorer Colson Gengenbach to situate himself for success, sniping one top shelf on Farkas. With just three minutes remaining in the second period, the Dinos broke the game wide open, thanks to a saucer pass from Mack Stewart. Tyson Galloway slid past the crease, managing to get his stick on the puck resulting in a tip in through the blue paint, putting the Dinos up 3-0.

The Dinos continued to roll through the third, capitalizing on a loose puck at the 8:52 mark. With a cross centre pass from Brendan Lee, the puck bounced off the boards, right onto the stick of Dallon Melin and eventually into the Cougars goal, marking the fourth and final goal in the 4-0 shutout for Tetachuk.

"Something we talk about is having a good start. I think me being dialed in and a rock back there kind of helped the guys up front be calm and not get too stressed out or make stressful plays," Tetachuk mentioned. "We had a struggle at the beginning of the season, so just trying to get back to our game and get those points back."

"I thought our energy and how we played got harder as we played on," Dinos bench boss Mark Howell commented. "We started to win more races and won more puck battles, and the last part of the game we kept on the outside."

The rivals will face off again Saturday at Father David Bauer arena with a 7 p.m. puck drop.

-UC-