Cougars, Dinos share honours in thrilling Crowchild Classic showdowns

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Connor Bouchard and Connor Blake each scored within the shootout to ship the Mount Royal Cougars to a comeback 3-2 shootout win over the College of Calgary Dinos males’s hockey group Wednesday night time in one other memorable chapter of the annual Crowchild Traditional sequence in entrance of a packed home contained in the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Shane Farkas was named the highest star of the night time after, making 18 saves in internet for the Cougars, retaining the Dinos out of the online on each their shootout makes an attempt.

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Carl Tetachuk was unbelievable in internet for the Dinos, racking up a season-high 39 saves on the night time.

With the win, MRU strikes to 18-5, good for third place in Canada West. After choosing up some extent, the Dinos transfer right into a tie for first place with UBC at 19-4-2.

The Dinos wasted no time giving their followers one thing to cheer about as Jake Gricius whipped a pointy wrist shot previous Farkas simply 22 seconds into the sport. Gricius’ aim shattered the document for the quickest aim scored within the Crowchild Traditional, breaking Matt Alfaro’s aim 2:10 within the ‘Dome again in 2018.

After netting the early aim, it was the Cougars making an attempt to play catchup the remainder of the opening interval, unleashing wave after wave on the assault. However Tetachuk wowed the Calgary trustworthy a number of instances with a number of clutch and unbelievable saves, together with an unbelievable no-look behind-the-back glove save.

Because of Tetachuk’s robust play, the Dinos carried the 1-0 lead into the second body.

The Cougars efficiently carried over the momentum into the second interval of play, peppering a flurry of pucks on internet. MRU lastly cracked Tetachuk’s armour halfway by means of the interval when the nation’s main level scorer, Connor Bouchard, confirmed off his playmaking expertise making a slick behind the online move to teammate Jaden Senkoe, who took benefit of a small window on the correct aspect of the online and flipped dwelling his eighth aim of the 12 months.

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Though it was the Cougars who scored, the aim appeared to re-energize Calgary’s offence which had laid dormant because the opening minute of the sport. With 3:07 remaining within the second, the Cougars would take a tripping penalty that proved expensive.

Calgary’s prime line was capable of finding some area to function and when a Noah King slapshot was turned away by Farkas, Colson Gengenbach — the hat trick-scoring hero of final 12 months’s Crowchild Traditional — discovered the puck on his stick in entrance of the online. Gengenbach patiently waited for a chance to elevate the puck previous the Cougars goalie, giving the Dinos the 2-1 lead.

In a back-and-forth third interval, the Dinos practically had the sport closed out, however a robust push by Mount Royal noticed Blake Stevenson simply dribble one previous the pads of Tetachuk to tie issues up with simply over seven minutes remaining.

The remaining couple of minutes of regulation and the 5 minutes of time beyond regulation have been crammed with numerous thrilling goal-scoring probabilities that have been met with an equal quantity of saves by each goalkeepers — who each have been the celebrities of the sport.

With the sport going to a shootout for the primary time within the males’s set up of the Traditional, Bouchard and Blake each went to the backhand to seek out the again of the online, whereas Farkas was capable of stonewall each of Calgary’s first two skaters to convey the MRU bench dashing the NHL ice in celebration.

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Each groups will return to motion Friday (7 p.m.) for a rematch at Father David Bauer Area. 

Former Cougar Kollman lifts Dinos

Courtney Kollman broke a scoreless recreation together with her ninth aim of the 12 months early within the third interval to offer the College of Calgary Dinos girls’s hockey group a 2-0 win over the No. 2 Mount Royal Cougars Wednesday in entrance of 10,474 followers contained in the Scotiabank Saddledome for the annual Crowchild Traditional.

Kollman — who spent the previous two seasons with the Cougars earlier than transferring to Calgary for her grasp’s program — redirected a shot from the blue line that went five-hole for the sport’s first aim 7:13 into the third.

Elizabeth Lang would add an empty-netter to seal this one up late within the contest.

The win is a giant one for the Dinos, who now transfer to 10-13-2 on the season and declare a tighter maintain on the third playoff spot with three video games left on their schedule. In the meantime, defending nationwide champion MRU strikes to 18-5 and is correct in center of a good battle close to the highest of the Canada West standings.

After a scoreless first that featured simply 10 mixed pictures, the 2 groups opened issues up slightly extra within the second interval. With simply 3:05 left within the body, Sydney Benko had a breakaway likelihood, however her blast was wolfed up by the glove of Durante.

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Moments later with the Dinos on the facility play, Caitlyn Perlinger had a rip from distance that appeared destined for the again of the online, solely to see the puck poked away by a defender’s stick on the final second.

After a mixed 21 pictures between the 2 groups within the first two intervals, the ultimate body featured one other 21, because the groups went finish to finish quite a lot of instances looking for the sport winner.
Lower than a minute earlier than Kollman’s aim, it appeared as if it might be MRU who would get on the board first. However Durante made one other highlight-level save, turning away a backhander level clean together with her blocker earlier than slamming the door on the rebound.

After quite a lot of robust defensive moments by the Dinos going up towards a determined MRU squad the emptied its internet, Calgary put this one away as Elizabeth Lang scored her tenth of the season.

Durante completed the night time with 21 saves for her second shutout of the season. Kaitlyn Ross made 19 saves for the Cougars.

The groups will face off once more Friday (7 p.m.) on the Flames Group Arenas.

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