Dinos top Cougars in double overtime thriller to take 1–0 series lead
By Sonny Sachdeva, February 28 2015
After losing three of four regular season contests to their Crowchild Classic rivals, the Dinos men’s hockey team opened their post-season by defeating the Mount Royal University Cougars by 3–2 on Feb. 27.
Over 800 fans packed the Father David Bauer Arena to watch game one of the Canada West semifinal series.
The Cougars entered the game fresh off a quarterfinal victory against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies last week while the Dinos’ last game came on Jan. 30 due to their first-round bye. Their long break showed in the game’s early goings.
“I thought we got better as the game went on,” said Dinos head coach Mark Howell. “You could tell Mount Royal had played playoff hockey. They were hungry, quick. They were on us.”
Cougars forward Cody Cartier scored the first goal of the night 2:30 into the first period, sidestepping the Dinos defence to wire one past goalie Kris Lazaruk from the slot.
The Dinos responded near the end of the period. Forward Adam Kambeitz fired a shot on net that was turned aside by Cougars netminder Cam Lanigan. Kambeitz stayed with the play and followed his own rebound, tucking it past Lanigan to tie the game at 1–1.
The second frame saw one more goal apiece from each team, and after 60 minutes was not enough to produce a victor, overtime was needed to break the 2–2 draw.
The Dinos tested Lanigan four minutes into the period by putting the puck on net, which he sprawled out to stop with his pad. As the puck sat on the goal-line, the Dinos rushed the net, pushing Lanigan’s pad, and the puck, over the line.
The goal was disallowed and overtime continued.
Eight minutes later, the Dinos continued their assault on Lanigan. Dinos forward Chris Collins carried the puck end-to-end through multiple MRU defenders before crashing into the net and taking Lanigan with him.
Lanigan remained down on the ice for several minutes before play resumed. Lanigan tried to play through the injury, but had to leave, and the Cougars were forced to replace him with backup netminder Dalyn Flette.
Flette managed to keep the score even for the remaining five minutes of the first overtime. But just as the second commenced, Dinos forward Dylan Walchuk beat the cold Flette from two-feet out to end the game.
“I saw the puck go to the point so I went to the front of the net,” Walchuk said. “Dzielski had a good shot and the rebound came out [and] I just slid it into the empty net.”
Calgary needs one more win in the best-of-three series to advance to their fourth conference final in five years.
Game two of the semifinals goes at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28 at Father David Bauer Arena. It can be watched live on Canada West T.V.