Dinos migrate to American hockey leagues
By Ashton Chugh, March 26 2015 —
After retiring from the Dinos men’s hockey team, defenceman Kodie Curran and goalie Kris Lazaruk are starting their professional careers with American hockey teams.
Curran is joining the minor league affiliate to the New York Rangers, the Hartford Wolf Pack, in the American Hockey League. Kris Lazaruk will become the starting goaltender for the Edmonton Oilers affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, in the East Coast Hockey League.
Curran had a remarkable last season with the Dinos. In 23 games, the Calgary native scored eight goals and 16 assists to lead all Dinos defencemen in scoring. His play earned him a spot on the Canada West First All-Star team for the second consecutive year.
Curran, who spent his junior career in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, finished the season as the Dinos’ top scorer among active players with 89 points in 96 career games. He also wrapped up his time in the CIS with an impressive plus-35 rating.
Lazaruk finishes his collegiate career after compiling one of the most impressive seasons at any goaltender has had in the history of Dinos hockey.
The Edmonton native gave up 22 goals in 14 games with the Dinos, which was good for a CIS-best 1.67 goals against average. He finished the season with a 9–4–0 record, a 0.938 save percentage and three shutouts.
The 6’1”, 185-pound goaltender earned all three of his shutouts in a row to set a Canada West regular season record. Beginning on Oct. 10, Lazaruk shutout the Universities of Regina, Saskatchewan and British Columbia before allowing his first goal on Nov. 14 against the University of Manitoba.
His conference record stands at 275:03 minutes. Lazaruk’s career 2.27 goals against average and 0.915 save percentage ranks No.2 and No.1 in team history, respectively.
Lazaruk will get a lot of playing time with the Condors as many of their goalies are injured.
The Dinos finished the 2014–15 campaign with a 20–8–0 record. Calgary advanced to the conference final for the fourth time in five seasons by defeating the Mount Royal Cougars in game three of the semi-finals before falling to the Alberta Golden Bears in the finals.
The Dinos season ended on a 3–1 loss to the Ontario University Athletic champion Guelph Gryphons in the University Cup quarterfinals.