Tyson Upper and Josh Maser both found the back of the net in the final 10 minutes of the game to help lead the No. 1 University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey team to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the No. 4 University of Alberta Golden Bears in Game 3 of the Canada West Championship Sunday night at Father David Bauer Arena, giving Calgary their first conference championship since 1996.
"I can't even describe it," Dinos head coach Mark Howell said. "We've been to the final five or six times and finally got it done. This group was unique. It was special. They're really young, but they brought it right from day one. They've been resilient - anything we've asked, they've done."
In front of a packed crowd of 1,013 fans, Alberta once again went ahead to quite the crowd just over 16 minutes into the contest when Ryan Hughes snuck up into the play and one timed a pass from teammate Nolan Volcan to give the Bears an early lead.
"I thought our guys played really well," Alberta head coach Ian Herbers said. "They (Calgary) are a tough team to play against. They play a very defensive game and don't give up very much, but a key thing was getting the first goal, which we did, but we just didn't get the second goal, which you need to get in a game like this."
With less than nine minutes left in the second period, the Dinos had a chance to get on the scoreboard with a two-on-one drive to the net by Bradley Schoonbaert and Josh Maser, but Alberta's defenceman Joel Sexsmith made a sliding stop to end their play.
Sexsmith made another crucial defensive play just over five minutes into the third, knocking the puck off the stick of Calgary's Max Patterson who was on the verge of generating a breakaway for himself.
"Give Alberta credit, they didn't give us a lot, offensively," Howell said. "They did some things different tonight that stymied us in the offensive zone and they put a lot of pressure on our defense tonight that we hadn't seen. Then, going into the third we just found a way. Even in those first 10 minutes it took a while to kind of get going, but eventually we got the motor engine going the right way."
Nevertheless, the Dinos efforts would not go unrewarded, with Tyson Upper illustrating the importance of forechecking by driving to the net and finishing a rebound to tie up the game at the 10:34 mark, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Just like Saturday's game, the Dinos proved to be the third period comeback kings. With just over three minutes left in regulation, Max Patterson won a faceoff in the attacking zone and slid the puck toward the net where Maser was waiting, getting a stick and sliding it backdoor for what proved to be the game winner.
Carl Tetachuk finished with 18 saves in the win for the Dinos, while Ethan Kruger had 21 saves in a strong night in the net for the Golden Bears.
Both teams will now turn their attention to the U SPORTS Championship in Charlottetown, PEI starting Mar. 16.
"When you win (conference), you feel like you deserve to go," Howell said. "We've gone a couple times in the past and you're always excited to go, but I think winning Canada West was really important for this program - for the alumni that have played here and the guys that are here now. It's been a long time - 1996. The program was well overdue."
