VANCOUVER – Four goals in little over three minutes in the second period was more than enough for the Calgary Dinos who earned a 5-2 win over the UBC Thunderbirds in game one of the Canada West Final Friday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
The T-Birds held a first period lead, outshot the Dinos by a 36-21 margin and out-chanced Calgary over the course of the game but now face elimination for the third time this Canada West post-season.
"We just challenged the guys after the first that we had to play harder," said Calgary head coach Mark Howell of his message to his team following the first. "I thought we were getting beat to pucks. We just wanted pucks and went to the net and started shooting and kind of got Schwebius on his heels a little bit and kept pushing."
"If you break it down, the first period I thought was a fantastic hockey period," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon who agreed with his counterpart's assessment that it was the T-Birds who had the much better start to game one. "We managed to get on the scoresheet but I liked everything about our game in that first period. And then the second period was okay but then the dam just broke and we just couldn't stop the bleeding there. It was just a combination of special team breakdowns, D-zone breakdowns, poor decision making and by the time we figured it out it was too late. I guess the positive is, we out-played that team for 50 minutes."
Holding a 1-0 lead after the first on
Josh Williams' first of the playoffs, the T-Birds quickly found the tables turned in the second.
The Dinos found the tying marker four-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame when Marty Westhaver snuck the puck five-hole past
Cole Schwebius on a partial break while on a delayed UBC penalty.
Calgary found themselves on a power play proper soon enough and made good on their first man advantage of the game when Adam Kydd unleashed a sharp wrister from the left circle, roofing the puck over Schwebius' left shoulder for the Dinos' first lead of the game.
Kydd's second of the playoffs seemed to open the floodgates as the defending conference champions struck twice more within just ten seconds, first Aiden Sutter with his first followed by Colton Gengenbach's third.
The T-Birds bleeding continued when the Dinos scored their second power play goal of the period to open up a 5-1 lead when Max Patterson banged home a rebound off a Gengenbach point shot.
UBC started to stem the tide in the wild period when
Sam Huo scored his league leading fifth of the playoffs, finishing on a centring feed from
Tian Rask. The puck had barely crossed the line before Huo was hit awkwardly along the end boards sparking a fracas that led to UBC's first power play of the game.
The 'Birds weren't able to take advantage, however, as the Dinos remained in firm control with 20 minutes to go.
Schwebius headed to the bench for the extra attacker with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the third and just a few seconds later the Dinos were called for a delay of game, puck over glass penalty giving UBC some late life with a 6-on-4 advantage but still trailing by three.
Dinos goaltender Carl Tetachuk made some of his biggest saves of an impressive game in net late in the going to ensure his team remained in a comfortable lead.
"I thought in the third he had to really dig in with traffic and lots of shots and bodies in front of him," Howell said of his netminder. "It's not always going to look clean (in front of him) and he battled."
The Calgary win moves the Dinos within one more of clinching their second straight Canada West title while the T-Birds have every intention of extending their conference season to Sunday.
"They have a little more experience in these situations because of what they did last year," added Butenschon. "Maybe the nerves got to us because we're at home and we were so excited, we wanted to win so badly and maybe wanted to put on a bit of a show for the fans when we should have just stuck to a business-like, workman attitude. We got to tip our cap to them tonight and hopefully tomorrow we can bounce back."
Puck drop for game two of the Canada West Final is set for 7:00 p.m. PT at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Tickets are available now and the game will also be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
