By Taylor McKee
It was truly an historic night for university hockey in Calgary. The University of Calgary Dinos men’s and women’s hockey teams faced off against the Mount Royal University Cougars at the Scotiabank Saddledome for the first time. Forget the standings, playoff implications or regular season records, these games were fiercely competitive and highly entertaining.
The event was hosted by the Calgary Flames who did an exceptional job packaging the event for the fans in attendance with in-game entertainment and in-depth profiles of each team at intermission.
The women’s matchup had no bearing on the standings with the Dinos already clinching a first-round bye into the Canada West semifinals and the Cougars already being eliminated from playoff contention. However, the level of play was very high with both teams carrying the play at various times throughout the game. The official turnout for the women’s game was 2,200, one of the highest totals in Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s hockey history.
The first period was marked by a lack of execution by the Dinos. Handily outshooting the Cougars, the Dinos struggled to get pucks towards the net effectively and create meaningful scoring chances. The Cougars took advantage of the U of C’s slow start when forward Michelle Ziegler opened the scoring with a ricocheted shot, hitting a defender on its way past Dinos goaltender Amanda Tapp.
In the second period, the Dinos got off to a much better start and tied the game with a goal from defender Kelsey Lang. However, with Melissa Zubick in the box, the Cougars Sarah Weninger scored to regain their one goal lead. The Dinos answered with a powerplay marker of their own when Iya Gavrilova finished off a magnificent passing play from Tanya Morgan and Hayley Wickenheiser. Late in the second, Gavrilova was the recipient of a fantastic breakaway feed from defender Megan Grenon and calmly deposited the puck short-side making it 3–2 Dinos heading into the third.
The third period was largely controlled by the Dinos who were able to smother the Cougars with an aggressive forecheck and stellar puck control. The Dinos — ranked second in the CIS — vastly out-chanced the Cougars and were too much for the young team handle. Wickenheiser iced the game late in the third for the Dinos with a top-shelf snapshot from 10-feet out. Elana Lovell would add one more for the Dinos and made the final 5–2 for the Dinos.
In the second half of the game, the Dinos offence was able to break through MRU’s clogging of the neutral zone and get pucks in behind their defence. “We changed the plan of attack, we needed to be more physical along the boards and take shots from everywhere,” said Lovell, a senior playing in what would be her final regular season weekend.
“It was nice for some of the girls to get to play in front of a crowd like that,” said Gavrilova, a veteran of pressure-filled games for the Russian national team. “The speed of the game was much faster in front of a crowd like that. It is good preparation for playoffs.”
“We had a slow start in the first period, but our third period — that’s the way have to play to be successful,” said head coach Danielle Goyette. “Sometimes you need a player to stick out and I feel tonight [Gavrilova] was the player that made the difference.”
The men’s game followed immediately after in front of an electric ’Dome crowd, several times larger than the Dinos have become accustomed to at Father David Bauer Arena. In terms of standings, a win would effectively seal a home playoff date for the Dinos while the Cougars were already eliminated from playoff contention. However, one could never guess from the atmosphere at the ’Dome that the game had no significance in the standings.
The first period was fast-paced with both teams having quality scoring chances in the opening minutes. Despite a generally well-played period, the first ended scoreless with the shots being 8–6 in favour of the Dinos.
Max Ross opened the scoring for the Dinos in the second period, depositing the feed from Alex Dzielski on a two-on-one. The Dinos would hit two posts in the second period and failing to convert would cost them. The Cougars would tie the game late in the second period with an extraordinary individual effort goal from forward Eric Galbraith to knot the game heading into the third.
Throughout the game, the Dinos rattled pucks off posts, had passes hit skates and struggled to execute in the offensive zone — the third period was no different. Despite vastly outshooting the Cougars, the Dinos could not solve Cougars goalie Justin Cote. Devin Gannon scored early in the third period off a Dustin Butler rebound and put the Cougars up 2–1. The Dinos would outshoot the Cougars 28–15 but lost the game 1–3, with Galbraith adding his second of the night into an empty net.
“Our goaltender was spectacular — without him we wouldn’t get the win tonight,” said Cougars head coach Jean Laforest. “We went with three lines tonight and it wasn’t pretty but the guys dug deep and got a well-deserved win.”
Cote made 27 saves for the Cougars to earn the win in his last game as a Cougar. “It was a great finish for me, I couldn’t have asked for more,” said Cote. “It was a lot of fun out there, great support from both the U of C and Mount Royal. I know a lot of people have worked real hard to get people out here to see some varsity sports and it was a lot of fun.”
Head coach of the Dinos Mark Howell was noticeably displeased with the effort of his team at the Dome. “We were fighting for home ice and now it’s not in our hands anymore. We have to wait for somebody else to do their job,” said Howell. “We generated a few opportunities but we are not generating enough quality scoring chances.”
The attendance at the game was 4,275, good enough to set a CW record for single game attendance breaking a record that had stood since 1971. The attendance and overall success of the event will hopefully convince the Flames to host this game again next season and perhaps make this a yearly event.
Judging by the quality of the play and the atmosphere in the building, both MRU and the U of C are well on their way to creating an exciting tradition for university sport in Calgary.