CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey team twice battled back from a one-goal deficit Saturday night at Father David Bauer Arena, but it was the Mount Royal University Cougars who took a 3-2 win in overtime.
The game doubled as Parents' Night, which Dinos head coach Mark Howell said means a lot to his players.
"Thank you to our parents, it's nice to have them in the stands," said Howell. "To play in front of them, our players love that for sure. When mom and dad and family are here, it always makes it special."
The Cougars opened the scoring less than six minutes into the game on an odd-man rush. Caden Kemkaran-Humble dropped a pass down the middle to Dax Williams, who quickly moved it to Vaughn Watterodt and beating a diving Carl Tetachuk to make it 1-0. The Dinos had a triple-shot opportunity late in the period, but Cougars goaltender Zach Zahara turned them all aside to protect the lead.
Calgary pulled even with just over five minutes left in the second period. Gavin Schmidt's shot from the right circle was initially stopped by Zahara before Steven Kirkpatrick lifted the rebound over the scrambling goaltender. It was Logan Hauer who found the puck in the crowd of legs and pushed it across the goal line to make it 1-1.
The Cougars regained the lead just over a minute later, when a rebound off a Tanner Komzak shot trickled over the Dinos goal line with help from Connor Bouchard giving the Cougars a 2-1 lead heading into the final frame of regulation.
A Mount Royal shot deflected off Tetachuk and skimmed the post early on in the third period, narrowly missing a 3-1 lead before Calgary tied it again in the final two minutes of regulation. Fischer O'Brien took the puck from Pavel Bocharov, circled through the middle and sent a cross-crease pass to Brendan Lee who buried it five-hole to send the game to overtime.
Just over three minutes into the extra period, Layton Feist got behind the Dinos defence, took a pass from Ruslan Jamaldinov and fired a shot from the right faceoff dot under Tetachuk's pads for the game-winner.
With a win from Friday night's game and an overtime loss Saturday, Howell is encouraged by the Dinos' discipline over the weekend.
"We're taking steps in the right direction," he said. "We're not taking as many reaching-stick penalties which allows you to stay in the game. If you have to kill five or six penalties, you're probably going to get bit. We took one tonight and four last night, so better for sure."
The Dinos will return to action Friday, Oct. 30 when they host the MacEwan University Griffins at 7 p.m. at Father David Bauer Arena. Tickets are available at GoDinos.com/Tickets.
The Cougars will host the Alberta Golden Bears the same weekend.
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