Two goals less than two minutes apart in the second half helped the University of Calgary Dinos overcome a shaky start to defeat the Saskatchewan Huskies 2-1 Sunday night.
The win was the second of the weekend for the Dinos, while the Huskies dropped their second road game in as many nights.
It was the tale of two halves in the match, as coming off a loss to the Mount Royal Cougars yesterday afternoon, the Huskies came out of the gates strongly. They dominated the early part of the possession, and forced Dinos goalkeeper Jake Ruschkowski to make a number of early saves to keep the score level.
The Huskies’ early pressure eventually paid off, as a beautiful cross from Tobias Hyrich-Krueger found Ajani Fountaine in the middle of the box, and he calmly put it past a helpless Ruschkowki.
The goal was the first the young university career of the first-year winger Fountaine.
Calgary was unable to answer back before the halftime whistle, and the Huskies took a 1-0 lead into the break.
Coming out for the second half in a slightly altered formation, along with two player substitutions, the Dinos struck first in the second half. Halftime sub Jeff Spolnik made an immediate impact on the game, breaking free and sliding one into the back of the net, evening the score at 1-1.
Calgary would use the energy boost of their first goal to their full advantage, as less than two minutes later, leading goal scorer Dominik Zuczek found himself streaking towards net, and place one past the Huskies goalkeeper with his left-foot. Suddenly the Dinos found themselves in control of the game, leading 2-1 after the 57th minute goal.
Saskatchewan worked hard to try and even the match, with forward Nikolas Baikas, who was a thorn in the side of the Dinos all night, hitting the crossbar off of a free kick late in the half.
However, that was as close as the Huskies would get, and Calgary would hang on for the 2-1 win.
With the back-to-back wins, the Dinos’ record now sits at 2-0-1 on the young season, while the tough Calgary road-trip causes the Huskies to fall to 1-2-1 after falling 2-0 to Mount Royal Saturday.
Saskatchewan will remain on the road next weekend when they visit Lethbridge on Saturday for a game scheduled to begin at 2:15 p.m.
