Vancouver, BC - The Calgary Dinos won their fifth straight game, defeating the UBC Thunderbirds 2-1 in overtime Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Jesse Ismond scored 2:31 into the extra frame to give the Dinos the victory and a weekend sweep of the 'Birds.
BOX SCORE
Unlike Friday night, in which the Thunderbirds were shell shocked in the first five minutes giving up two goals, UBC took it to the Calgary Dinos early firing five shots on Jacob DeSerres in the first three minutes. Unfortunately for the Thunderbirds, the 2011 Memorial Cup Champion was up to the task stopping them all, including a
Brad Hoban (Victoria, BC) wrap around attempt and
Jessi Hilton (Sherwood Park, AB) alone in front. Just after a failed power play opportunity for the 'Birds, Calgary opened the scoring as Corey Banfield came off the bench and took a great feed from Walker Wintoneak, beating
Steven Stanford (Calgary, AB) to give the visitors a 1-0 lead 8:39 into the opening frame. UBC had an opportunity to tie things up late in the period as they had a two man advantage for 1:11, but were unable to beat DeSerres. The best chance came off the stick of
Max Grassi (North Vancouver, BC) who hit the post on the short side. DeSerres stopped all 11 shots in the first period to keep the Dinos up 1-0 on UBC after 20 minutes.
MHK: T-Birds v. Calgary (Jan. 5, 2013) Gallery
UBC wasted little time scoring the equalizer in the second period as
Jessi Hilton scored just 52 seconds into the frame to tie the game 1-1. After that Calgary controlled much of the play, taking advantage of some sloppy passing from the Thunderbirds. Fortunately, UBC was able to weather the storm and would get a couple of chances late, but once again Jacob DeSerres was there to close the door. His best save of the period coming off the stick of
Scott Wasden (West Kelowna, BC) on a 3-on-2 with 5.7 seconds left in the period. 1-1 is how things stood through 40 minutes.
Three minutes into the third period the Calgary Dinos thought they had the go ahead goal, but Brock Nixon's tip shot went off the post keeping the game deadlocked at 1-1. After registering just one shot on their own power play, UBC got into penalty trouble late in the period taking back to back penalties; however, it was the shorthanded 'Birds with the best chances.
Cole Pruden (Winnipeg, MB) had a couple, as did
Dillon Wagner (Keephills, AB), but DeSerres stopped them all. The game would remain tied through 60 minutes of regulation time. Shots were 27-21 in favour of UBC.
In overtime the Dinos would get the winner as Jesse Ismond, streaking to the net, tipped home a nice feed from Colton Grant to give Calgary a 2-1 victory, sweeping the weekend series.
"It's tough to win games when you can't score," said head coach Milan Dragicevic. "We had some bright spots tonight and really it could have gone either way, but this is the reality of our league; games get tougher to win in the second half of the season and right now we are learning that fact the hard way."
Final shots were 27-22 for UBC. DeSerres made 26 saves, while Stanford stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced.
Both teams finished the night 0-for-4 on the power play.
With the victory the Dinos (11-7-0) remain in fourth place in the Canada West conference one point behind Manitoba (10-5-3), while UBC (9-7-2), who picked up one point in the overtime loss, is tied for fifth with Regina (9-7-2), two points behind the Dinos.
Now with just 10 games left in the regular season the Thunderbirds hit the road to take on the Lethbridge Pronghorns (1-15-2) next weekend. Lethbridge has just one win on the season and sit in last place in the Canada West conference.
