SASKATOON — Two goals in 25 seconds in the late stages of the second period propelled the University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey team to a 4-1 win over the Saskatchewan Huskies in Game 1 of the Canada West Playoffs at Merlis Belsher Place.
"The bottom line is they capitalized and we didn't," said Huskies head coach Mike Babcock. "I wasn't disappointed in the game at all. I thought we did a lot of real good things."
Brodan Salmond made 33 saves on the night between the pipes for Calgary, 11 of which came in the third-period. The former Moose Jaw Warriors goaltender stood tall particularly in the late stages of regulation to fend off a flurry of Huskies chances, leading the visitors to the win.
"You've got to give him some credit. He made some saves," said Huskies forward Carter Folk, on the performance from Salmond. "35 shots on nets. Those were some grade-A chances."
Saskatchewan will fight to keep their season alive tomorrow night, while Calgary has a chance to close out the series and punch their ticket to the Canada West semifinal.
"Game 1 is huge. We're definitely excited we took that one. We're going to have a little bit of fun and celebrate ourselves, then tomorrow we got to get back at it," said Dinos forward Kaden Elder.
It was Bradley Schoonbaert who opened the scoring just 3:35 into the hockey game, as he jammed the puck home past Jordan Kooy, giving the visitors the early advantage.
But just 12 seconds later, the Dogs responded as Evan Fiala's seeing-eye writer from the point zipped past Salmond to make it 1-1.
After what was a relatively uneventful middle frame, the Dinos broke it open with the aforementioned two goals in the final four minutes of the second, as Josh Maser and Elder found the back of the net to give the visitors a two-goal lead.
Justin Ball was able to cut said lead in half at the 5:46 mark of the third off a sweet dish from Zane Franklin, but that was as close as the Saskatchewan comeback bid would come, despite outshooting Calgary 35-21 in the hockey game.
"We had lots of chances to score and played well defensively for the most part. In a playoff series like that, you try to take away those positives and try to move on to tomorrow," said Folk.
As mentioned, Game 2 runs Saturday night at Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon. All the action can be watched live on CanadaWest.TV presented by Co-op.
