Apparently not all dinosaurs die off when winter comes to town. With a chill descending over the West Varsity pitch the University of Calgary Dinos battled the University of Manitoba Bisons to a 1-1 draw and then followed that up with a 2-1 win over the University of Regina Cougars a day later.
Calgary takes four points from the weekend and that places them in a tie for sixth place in Canada West with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. With only two games remaining in the season, every game is important for the Dinos.
“Oh, goodness,” said forward Tessa Miller. “We have to win our last games to guarantee a playoff spot and not leave it up to other teams. We need to decide our own fate now.”
Calgary and Manitoba played an even game Saturday, as both teams had nine shots on net and both teams notched one goal.
Both goalkeepers made several key saves in the half and kept the score nil-nil. Calgary finally got on the scoreboard when Tessa Miller took a long shot that beat Bisons netminder Ashley Forbes midway through the first half.w
“We started off not too bad, but kind of faded a little bit,” explained Bisons head coach Walter McKee. “We can’t give up goals like that. We have to be smarter. We can’t let them shoot from out there.”
The Bisons responded early in the second half and took the game to the Dinos.
In the 66th minute, Bison forward Caley Miskimmin deked around the Calgary defence and slotted the ball past Dinos goalkeeper Kristin Barton.
“We changed our midfield in the second and I changed one of my defenders,” said McKee. “I went with some of my younger players and it seemed to spark it up a bit.”
The Bison goal awakened the Dinos players who came out sluggish early in the second half. For the remainder of the game, both teams had excellent chances and it was only missed opportunities, excellent defensive play and the stellar performance by the ‘keepers that kept the game tied.
“We need to play a more attacking game,” said Miller. “We kind of came out– especially in the second half– a little too defensively. We need to press forward and obviously shoot more.”
Miller said the lack of offence could be due a worn out team in their second game of the weekend.
“I thought we played really hard,” she said. “We definitely came out a little sleepy in the second half, but I know everyone is so tired, we worked our butts off.”