Men’s Hockey: Hockeysaurs scratch seven-year itch

By Alyzee Sibtain

Friday the 13th was not a memorable night for the University of Calgary men’s hockeysaurs, as they suffered a 5-3 loss to the University of Alberta Golden Bears. But while 13 proved to be unlucky for the Dinos, seven was a much more fruitful number as the boys wiped out the Bears–and their seven year losing skid in Edmonton’s Clare Drake Arena–with a well-fought 5-3 victory the following night.

It was a bittersweet victory for Adam Redmond, an Edmonton native, to end the skid in front of friends and family.

“It’s always nice to play in front of your family and friends, but we didn’t want to fall to 1-3,” explained Redmond, a third-year kinesiology student. “It was nice to beat that seven-year jinx. One of our goals was to play well against teams who don’t give up points.”

Dino Aaron Richards poured in four points over the weekend, opening the scoring half-way through the first period Friday. Unlike last weekend, the Dinos were able to capitalize on the man advantage, scoring all three of their goals during power plays. But the Bears pounded the Dinos on the offensive end, outshadowing the Dinos’ 31 shots on goal with their own blistering 43 blasts. The Bears’ Dylan Stanley was especially troublesome, with a goal and three points on the night.

If the Bears thought they would be able to put away the Dinos in consecutive nights, they were in for disappointment. The Dinos played an aggressive game Saturday, netting five goals on 30 shots with two coming off the power play. The hockeysaurs never trailed, thanks to forward Ryan Annesley, who gave his team the early lead on a first period power play goal and scored the winning goal in the third period.

Similar to last week, the referees were unable to wean themselves off the whistle. This weekend, they handed out a total of 38 penalties, 20 against the Dinos and 18 against the Bears. The Dinos need to start adjusting to the new rules, and fast, if they want to stop giving opponents the man advantage due to sloppy play and lack of discipline.

“We just have to deal with the adversity as it comes,” Redmond said. “We were a little undisciplined the first game [last weekend] but we just have to deal with it.”

The Dinos are currently 2-2-0 on the year and third in Canada West.

The Dinos head south to play the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns Fri., Oct. 20 before returning to Father David Bauer Arena for Saturday night’s series wrap-up. The game starts at 7 p.m. Entrance is free with a student ID.