Hello? Hockey?

By Sean Nyilassy

We’re all human here at the University of Calgary. The return of the NHL has touched us all–saving some of us from touching ourselves. And even though pre-season didn’t used to be this exciting, this year it has been a distraction big enough for your girlfriend to overlook the fact that the ring you proposed with came out of the Cracker Jack box she just opened to eat while watching the game.

The Dinos men’s hockey team is no exception to this rule, and as their blood boils NHL, their game suffers. The Dinos competed in a University of Saskatchewan Huskies hosted shindig Sept. 24-25 and things went awry against the home team.

Entering the arena–heads held high from the two wins over college teams the previous weekend–the Dinos didn’t see what was coming. Unfortunately, the U of S had plenty crammed up their sleeve.

Scoring opened just two minutes into the game, with the Huskies making it 2-0 before our boys kicked off their high heels and started to skate. Towards the end of the first period the Dinos’ Trevor Galan took a pass from Lonny Tetley on the way down the ice and put the puck in the net to start a comeback.

Unfortunately, they left that comeback in the locker room. The Huskies scored four times during the second frame, with no echo from the Dinos. Aaron Richards finally wrapped one around the Huskie net, pulling a bit of the Dinos’ dignity back out.

Whether the Dinos were working out or napping in the dressing room will remain a mystery, but they began the third period spunkless again, giving up a goal before a minute had passed. The tempers began to flare, warranting penalties following a pass from Alex Lalonde that Rob Woods stuck in the net for the Dinos’ second goal.

The Dinos received three penalties, the Huskies two. This seemed to be the tone for much of the game. A Huskie rookie was ejected from the game during the second period and there were two Dinos’ and one Huskie 10-minute misconduct handed out during the third.

The Huskies managed to slip one more by the Dinos before time expired, bringing the final tally to 8-3. The Dinos don’t have much time left to prepare; their regular season starts Oct. 7-8 with a series against the University of Regina.

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