By Roman Auriti
With a dismal record of 6-13-1, the University of Calgary Dinos men’s hockey team had a lot to gain from their two-game home series last weekend. Thankfully, they swept the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. The Dinos smashed their slanted odds and left the ice with a 6-3 victory on Friday. They followed this win with a 7-0 win on Saturday.
The Dinos began Friday’s game with a flurry as veteran forward Brock Nixon scored 26 seconds into the game, but it didn’t phase the hungry Huskies.
A minute and a half later the Huskies replied when forward Steven DaSilva scored on a powerplay to even the game.
“[We] just talked about what we needed to do and our points came together and just started with our game plan and [it] was real good,” said Dinos forward Reid Jorgensen.
Saskatchewan broke the tie halfway into the second period when Michael Kaye fired the puck past Dinos goaltender Jeff Weber, to bring Saskatchewan to a 2-1 lead.
The Dino’s would not end the second period without a fight, though. The Dinos converted three of 12 shots on goals by Dan Erhman, Aaron O’Malley and Paul Gentile, giving them a 4-2 lead.
The Huskies scored one last goal before the period was finished, when Evan Schafer managed to wind up in the slot and blast the puck behind Weber off of a rebound.
The Dinos started the third period with the same fervour they had in the second and Thomas Moore shot the puck past Harvey early.
The Dinos later consolidated their dominance with six minutes left in the game when Gentile put the puck past Harvey on a shorthanded wraparound for his second of the night.
Penalties ran rampant throughout the game.
The Huskies drew a total of 30 penalty minutes and the Dinos banked 27 minutes in the sin bin. Two game misconducts were also called during the game.
Saskatchewan suffered the first, in the second period, when Casey Lee was called for an interference penalty.
“It’s something that we have to get away from,” said Jorgensen. “But at the same time we’re trying to play hard.”
The Dinos weren’t able to convert on any of the eight power plays that they had throughout the game.
After the first period, the Dinos didn’t see a whole lot of action back in their own end of the ice, outshot the Huskies 23-13 and scored on five of the shots.
The high goal output that the Dinos demonstrated hasn’t been achieved since the beginning of the season when they were a force to be reckoned with.
“We stopped taking big risks and played a little defence and our defence led to some offence,” said Jorgensen.