A night of ups and downs — with mostly downs — saw UBC drop game two against the Calgary Dinos 6-3. Unlike Friday’s match up, the Dinos team beat UBC in almost every statistical category.
“Their season was on the line and they played like it. It’s playoff hockey. It happens,” UBC head coach Sven Butenschon said.
Dinos struck first at 6:03, as Mitch Cook streamed in along the right boards, cut to the middle and scored five-hole past Matt Hewitt. Two minutes later, Coda Gordon jammed in a point shot rebound to double the visitors lead.
Like Friday, it was crash and bang hockey all evening as both teams flooded the net with bodies after every whistle. Eight first period penalties — five for UBC and three for Calgary — proved playoff animosity had taken root in this series.
By the end of the first, shots would be 11-6 for Calgary, with the Dinos controlling much of play.
It seemed UBC would have to play against two teams tonight as the team in black and white continued the parade of penalties into the second. A post-whistle roughing penalty allowed Calgary’s Chris Collins to beat Hewitt with a laser over his right shoulder just two minutes into the second frame.
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It is hard to say the game seemed out-of-hand at 3-0 halfway through — but with the penalty problems, UBC needed a spark. For a brief second, that spark’s name was Tyler Sandhu as he took a Nick Buonassisi drop pass and rocketed it far-side, post and in midway through the period.
But like a flicker in the night, UBC’s brief period of hope was crushed as Riley Sheen made it 4-1 just 19 seconds later for Calgary, silencing the home crowd.
Thunderbird’s Carter Popoff cut the lead to two with a wrist shot audibly dinging off the crossbar and in, making it 4-2 at 12:53 — the last goal of the middle frame.
As the T-Birds built momentum, penalties again would slow their roll going into the third.
UBC began the third period with a hop in their step. Big hits and close chances were a good sign for a ’Birds comeback.
Sorry, did I say comeback? I meant another Calgary goal. Sheen scored his second as he stickhandled his way around a defender and Hewitt to make it 5-2 for Dinos.
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Hewitt would still stand tall, stopping a breakaway and its resulting two rebounds as time began to slip away for the T-Birds.
Michael Stenerson would give a little bit of hope at 14:31 in the third for the home side, streaking down the left side and scoring under goalie Matthew Greenfield’s arm. But, with Hewitt pulled at UBC’s end, a goaltender interference penalty would make game three a reality. Calgary’s Ryan Graham would sink an empty-netter power play goal, making it 6-3.
With the final buzzer, the teams left a game that had few things to show for UBC.
“There were a lot of issues out there with our game. They definitely had the legs and jump and beat us to loose pucks,” Butenschon said. “They were first on everything, and then, even when we did get to the puck, they closed us down real quick.”
And yet, Butenschon could still see some upside to Saturday’s loss.
“I think the positives are we’re at home and scored three today, four yesterday … you set yourself up pretty good with those numbers.”
On Sunday, February 18 at 5:30 p.m., UBC will seek to bounce back in the series-deciding game at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Winner takes all.