Max Sturley, Dinos Communications
CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos suffered their third straight shutout loss, as the visiting University of Lethbridge Pronghorns picked up a 4-0 victory, Friday night at the Father David Bauer Arena.
Lethbridge was quick out of the gate to get a scoring chance, as just 51 seconds in, fourth-year forward Denzelle Bourgeois danced into the Dinos zone before rifling a shot off the post.
The Pronghorns and Dinos traded quality chances early on in the first before Lethbridge found the first opening, 12 minutes into the period.
On the power play, Tricia Van Vaerenbergh finished off a nice passing play from Mikaela Ray and Mackenzie Gal, scoring on the doorstep of Kelsey Roberts, making it 1-0.
The Dinos ended up surviving two more penalty kills, as the Pronghorns maintained the one-goal lead heading into the second.
The break seemed to favour the visitors, as Lethbridge doubled their lead quickly into the middle frame.
Second-year forward Alli Borrow finished off a third chance, outstretching Roberts before depositing the puck past her on the glove side.
Three minutes later, Borrow continued her momentum in terrific fashion.
On the power play, Borrow on the zone entry, took a drop pass from linemate Kyra Greig, danced a Dino with a wicked toe drag, before going glove side shelf past Roberts, making it 3-0 Pronghorns.
The rest of the period belonged to the Dinos, as they had chances galore in the back half of the period, including two 2-on-1 rushes, but they failed to convert.
In the third period, the Dinos carried the majority of the play once again, highlighted by forward Taylor Beck hitting the post on a scramble midway through the period.
"We had scoring chances on the penalty kill, 5-on-5 and on the power play," said assistant coach Kelly Bechard.
"When you have those chances in games like this when the teams are so tight, you have to take advantage and put the puck in the net."
With 5 minutes to go, the Dinos pulled Roberts in search of a late goal, but the Pronghorns converted on the open cage, with Van Vaerenbergh picking up her second goal of the night.
From there, the Pronghorns cruised to 4-0 win, and snapped a five game losing streak in the process. For the Dinos, they are still in search of win number one, a quarter of the way through the season.
Pronghorns goaltender and Calgary native Alicia Anderson picked up the 20 save shutout, good for second of the season.
These two teams will travel to Lethbridge to complete the weekend series, tomorrow night at the Nicholas Sheran Arena.
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Photo by David Moll