Men split in Saskatchewan

By Darren Friesen

Last weekend once again saw the University of Calgary men’s hockey squad head out to the vastness of the Saskatchewan landscape–a return to the site of their previous year’s national defeats in order to square off against long-time rivals, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

The venue: Rutherford Arena, Saskatoon.

The thought inside the head of every member of the Dinos: Redemption.

This was the opportunity for the men’s team to start erasing bad memories by building on the future of the season in front of them.

In Friday night’s action, the Dinos seemingly forgot about last year’s performance because they came out focused on winning, gaining a 2-0 first period lead. Second period play was almost a parallel execution of the same Dinos team. Ken McKay and Ron Grimmard netted two more early second period goals, which only expanded the Dinos commanding start.

Unfortunately for the U of C, the skeletons of last year could not stay hidden in the dressing room. Near the halfway point of the second period the Huskies started to mount a comeback with an even strength marker, followed by a short-handed goal before the period was out.

Going into the third, the Dinos struggle continued as more Saskatchewan offence was directed at starting goaltender Scott Rideout.

"They basically shut us down in the third," commented veteran forward Darren Cain. "We just couldn’t get anything going on the power-play, and that hurt us."

Ultimately, the Saskatchewan squad proved too strong late in the game and came back to win 5-4 with an overtime goal.

Saturday’s affair started where the last game ended, with the Huskies putting the first two points on the board. However, according to Cain, the Dinos "knew what we had to do."

"We had to play 60 full minutes of hockey and we knew that we would come out on top," said Cain.

This proved to be a successful philosophy for the U of C. They came back with the next five goals and won the game 7-4.

"We were pretty disappointed that we didn’t get something out of the game on Friday, and Saturday I thought that we really bounced back well," Head Coach Tim Bothwell said about his team’s weekend performance.

"We played with a lot of intensity and determination; it was a really gutsy effort, and we’re happy with the split," he added.

The Dinos are back in Father David Bauer Arena this upcoming weekend to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.