CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey team came out blazing for a 5-1 victory over the Alberta Golden Bears Saturday night at Father David Bauer Arena.

Completely flipping the script from Friday night's matchup, it was the Dinos who scored early and often in second game of the Battle of Alberta.

"Our start last night was really bad, but we had a good bounce back tonight," said Calgary head coach Mark Howell. "It took a little bit to get going in the first period; we scored but needed to kind of figure out a few things. I thought the second and third period were a lot better. We're just a way better team when we play down low in the offensive zone and we did more of that in the second and third for sure."

It was only eight and a half minutes into the first frame when the home team struck first. With a cluster of players fighting for the puck behind the net, Gavin Schmidt found Hayden Pakkala net front, scoring with a shot to the top left corner over Alberta goaltender Drew Sim. 

Schmidt soon followed up with his own goal, his second in as many games. With the Dinos on the power play, a scramble in front of the net had Stephen Kirkpatrick taking a backhand shot which rebounded onto Schmidt's stick before popping it over a sprawling Sim, sending the Dinos up 2-0 to finish out the first period.

"It was good to get my first one down," said Schmidt, who scored his first U SPORTS goal in the previous night's matchup. "Then I got another one today, which is really nice, so we just have to keep it rolling. I don't think we started out very well Friday in the first period, but our last two periods were pretty solid. We figured out how to play this team and then we got rewarded tonight."

It wasn't long before the Golden Bears cut the lead in half just one minute into the second frame, notching what would go to be their only goal of the night. On a two-man advantage, a quick pass between Mason Ward and Adam Hall sent the puck up to Dawson Davidson skating through the right circle. Davidson then launched the puck to the left post and behind Dinos goaltender Carl Stankowski to bring the score 2-1. 

However, that momentum for the visitors didn't last long. Brendan Lee took a backhanded shot off the rush that trickled through Sim and was quickly followed up less than three minutes later by Mack Stewart tucking one in off a pass from Jake Poole, making it a 4-1 game at the end of the second.

In the final frame, it was Kirkpatrick who sealed the deal. Starting in the Dinos defensive zone, he drove up the left side of the ice passing Alberta defenders before shooting a laser through Sim, finalizing a 5-1 victory and putting the Dinos back in the win column. 

"We didn't have a great week of practice last week, so we got what we got Friday night because of that," said Howell, looking ahead to this week's practice schedule. "We just have to remember how honest we've got to be and just do things right in practice, I think that leads to having a better Friday. MacEwan is a really fast, hardworking team and we just have to get more consistent. We've got to find a way to play 60. It's a new young team, but we show signs of being really good. We just have to find a way to do it for 60 minutes."

Calgary will be facing off against the MacEwan Griffins for a home-and-home set starting in Edmonton this Friday and returning to Calgary on Saturday. 

The Alberta Golden Bears will look to visit the Trinity Western Spartans that same weekend.

-UC-