Short-handed Hockeysaurs

By Crystal Wong

How can a hockey team with a 4-0 advantage manage to blow the lead as if they had fallen asleep? Better yet, how does a team allow five short-handed goals in a single game–three in all of 35 seconds–to basically hand the game to their opponent?

Just ask the Dinos; they encountered this scenario against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Fri., Jan. 13.

Head Coach Scott Atkinson has asked his men’s hockey team to be consistent all season long. While it was apparent that they just couldn’t seem to find consistency from game to game, it now seems hard to accomplish even within a single game.

Not much could be said about their performance Jan. 13-14 without using the word ‘breakdown,’ and a major one at that. On Friday, after jumping to a four-goal lead, it looked as though the Dinos were on their way to their first victory against the Huskies this season. But the game turned sour early in the second period when Husky Dean Beuker scored on a two-man advantage, pulling his team within three goals. They added a short-handed goal before the period was over, cutting the deficit down to only two.

After that, everything became a disaster for the Dinos. With the exception of the last five minutes of the third, the Dinos stayed away from the penalty box in that period. But it didn’t matter. In fact, the Huskies did themselves a favour by taking penalties.

At the 4:02 mark of the period, Stephen Mann went off for two minutes for interference. The Huskies’ special team went to work while the Dinos were missing in action. Three short-handed goals were scored, all during the same Dinos powerplay, at 4:39, 5:02 and 5:14.

The Huskies added yet another short-handed goal three minutes later to secure their comeback. They totalled six unanswered goals, five of them short-handed, for the 6-4 come-from-behind victory.

Beuker recorded a hat-trick for Saskatchewan, earning himself Canada West Hockey Player of the Week honours. Travis Friedley, Daniel LaPointe, Jevon Desautels and Colin McRae were the Dinos’ goal-scorers. Once again, the plus/minus stat proved pointless; the Huskies were -15 on the night while the Dinos were +15.

Unfortunately for the Dinos, not only did they let the game get away, but they will also be in the record books for the wrong reasons: Saskatchewan now holds the record for the most short-handed goals in a game (five) and in a period (four) in Canada West.

While the Dinos were hoping to avoid a late-game collapse in Saturday’s game, it turned out that they had nothing to worry about; they never got off their feet in the first place. The high-flying Huskies came out with the momentum they gained from Friday’s thriller and out-shot the Dinos 17-2 in the first. Goaltender Scott Talbot was solid in net, giving up two goals with virtually no help from the defense.

Although the Dinos narrowly out-shot Saskatchewan for the last two periods, Thomas Vicars was simply unbeatable in goal. Saskatchewan kept the offense going and added three more goals, making the final score 5-0. This is the Dinos’ second shutout loss of the season, with the first being against the University of Alberta Golden Bears Oct. 21.

The top-ranked Huskies improve to 14-3-3 for 31 points this season while the Dinos drop to 7-11-2 for 16 points.

The Dinos resume play against the University of Manitoba Bisons Jan. 27-28 in the Father David Bauer Arena at 7 p.m. The teams split their previous series in November. The Bisons are currently 2-6-1 at home, a record they’re looking to improve upon with these next two games.