The University of Calgary men’s hockey team missed an excellent opportunity last weekend to move into a second-place tie in the Canada West division with the Lethbridge Pronghorns. Hypothetically, by beating the visiting Brandon University Bobcats twice they could have improved their record to 8-5-1, however, this was not meant to be.
Friday night at Father David Bauer the Dinos hosted the Bobcats. Currently, Brandon is the last-place team in the West; therefore, one would think that this would be the perfect chance for the Dinos to gain valuable points before they head into the long Christmas break? Right? Wrong.
Friday’s showdown at home only proved the Dinos are still struggling and changes must be made if they expect to repeat last year’s impressive performance. Despite outplaying and outshooting the Bobcats 48-22, the best the Dinos could do was a 5-5 tie.
Brandon opened the scoring and led 2-1 after the first period. Both Ron Grimmard and Dallas Fallscheer responded in the second to put their team on the board, but Brandon would not relent, also scoring twice in the period. Ken Mckay tied the game for Calgary and Sean Robertson gave them the lead, but for every goal the Dinos scored Brandon answered, scoring only 20 seconds after the Dinos took their first lead of the game. Overtime didn’t produce a winner, resulting in a disappointing single point for the Calgary squad.
On the bright side, Saturday’s affair saw a different Calgary team hit the ice. Brandon goaltender Curtis Atkinson was unable to hold the Dinos powerful offence on this night. Calgary exploded in the first period taking a commanding 4-1 lead. Second period action was much the same with U of C placing three more markers on the board and easily controlling the rest of the game on the way to an easy win.
Ron Grimmard scored three goals and added a pair of assists to lead his team to an 11-3 victory. Tyler Nilsson made 24 saves as the Dinos improved their record to 7-5-2.