CALGARY – Power plays decided the night at Father David Bauer Arena on Friday, as the University of Regina Cougars beat the University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey team 4-2 in the Dinos' home opener.
Five of the six goals came on the man advantage, with both Dinos goals coming from second-year forward
Hayden Pakkala, while the Cougars had four different goal scorers.
"They executed, and it was a good job," said Dinos head coach
Mark Howell on his power play unit. "It's good to score on the power play, but we keep taking penalties that shoot us in the foot, and we can't seem to kill penalties off. It's great our power play was good, but we have to be better on the other side as well."
The Dinos now move to 0-3 on the season while the Cougars improve to 3-0.
The Dinos had the better of the early play, outshooting Regina 7-2 in a scoreless first period. Calgary created several good chances in front of the net with rookie
Trae Johnson trying to go five-hole on a one-on-one before Cougars goaltender Damon Cunningham made the stop to keep it scoreless.
Regina broke the deadlock just past the midway point of the second period on the power play when Ben Roulette cleaned up a deflected puck in front of the net. Calgary answered on its own power play three minutes later with Pakkala scoring from the slot off a goal-line pass from Dinos captain
Jake Poole. Cougars forward Jye Zawatsky responded 37 seconds later, beating Dinos goaltender
Carl Tetachuk on the blocker side from the top of the left circle with the man advantage to regain the lead.
Calgary sent a flurry of shots at Cunningham over the rest of the period and finally got one through in the final minute. Pakkala tied the game 2-2 on the power play with a goal much like his first, this time set up by a pass from
Remy Aquilon at the top of the circle.
The Cougars got back in front on yet another power play in the third period when Carson Whyte beat Tetachuk on the blocker side with a goal that closely resembled Pakkala's. About six minutes later, Riley Fequet snuck a shot from the outer edge of the right circle past the goal line to make it 4-2.
Calgary outshot Regina 39-17, but Cunningham made 37 saves to earn the win.
"We talked about having a good start, and we just didn't start good," Howell said. "We're lacking urgency when we need it, and it wasn't until the middle to the end of the second period when Poole's line went out, worked really hard and won some pucks, and then we had a little bit more momentum.
"We're just lacking some confidence and – more than anything else – lacking a work ethic to compete at this level. We're just fragile and not getting it done right now."
The Dinos and Cougars will return to action Saturday with puck drop at 3 p.m. Tickets are available at GoDinos.com/Tickets.
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