Justin Mackenzie, Dinos Communications

CALGARY – Playing their second consecutive matinee affair, the University of Calgary Dinos once again scored early en route to an 8-2 victory over the No. 7 UBC Thunderbirds.

With Saturday's win at the Father David Bauer Arena, the Dinos improve to 3-2-0-1 on the season, while the Thunderbirds slip to 4-2-0-0 after coming into the weekend undefeated.

Despite several key names out of the lineup again, the Dinos wasted no time filling the net. Just 25 seconds in, Mitch Cook redirected in a Bradley Schoonbaert pass to give the Dinos a 1-0 lead.

UBC didn't get many opportunities in the first frame, but their best came with just under five minutes on a puck that found Tyler Sandhu all alone in front of the net. Dinos netminder Matt Greenfield stood tall on the point-blank shot to preserve the narrow lead.

Calgary added two more in the period with goals coming from Chris Rauckman and Coda Gordon for a 3-0 Dinos lead after the first. The same score that we saw in yesterday's tilt.

"We needed a quick start today, we knew they were going to push hard, and getting an early one was big for us," said Dinos head coach Mark Howell on his team's first-period success.

The first couple minutes of the second saw much of the same storyline as the Dinos opened the scoring again just two minutes in on a Robbie Fisher wrist shot and added yet another 18 seconds later from Schoonbeart who picked up his second point of the night to make it 5-0.

Jordan Popoff erased the goose egg on the scoreboard on a breakaway from a Calgary turnover, finding room past the glove of Greenfield. They added another one late to cut the lead to two before Mitch Cook potted his second of the game with 20 seconds left to keep the Dinos out to a four-goal lead going into the final 20 minutes.

The Dinos early period scoring continued in the third as Rauckman scored his second of the game four minutes in. Schoonbaert would add another goal late in the game to cap off an impressive afternoon.

Greenfield stopped 31 of 33 shots faced on the day for the Dinos, while Dea made 19 saves for UBC.

The Dinos will head south Friday to start a home-and-home series against the Lethbridge Pronghorns while UBC looks to get back on track and head home for a meeting with the Saskatchewan Huskies.

-UC-

Photo by David Moll