Lethbridge – The Lethbridge Pronghorns climbed back from a 2-0 deficit to force overtime and earn a hard fought 3-2 double overtime victory against their Southern Alberta rivals, the Calgary Dinos, Friday night.
 
Tyler Hlookoff scored the overtime winner to give the ‘Horns their second consecutive win, while Daniel Iwanski and Taylor Gal scored the other ‘Horns goals. Dylan Hood and Max Ross replied for Calgary.
 
Boxscore
 
The Dinos’ came out hard and struck first, less than three minutes in, as a loose rebound in front of the Lethbridge net allowed Hood’s follow up effort to sneak low glove side past Scott Bowles.
 
Capitalizing on an early power play opportunity, Lethbridge native Max Ross’ hard wrister earned him his second goal in a Dino uniform, at 5:44, as the Calgary’s offensive dominance continued.
 
Midway through the frame, Lethbridge had yet to register a shot on net and after one period of play, the Dinos’ had outshot the ‘Horns 15-4.
 
Lethbridge seemed to find some life during the break, however, as the ‘Horns crashed the net and created multiple scoring chances, playing much more aggressively than in the first twenty minutes.
 
Shots on goal nearly balanced themselves out by midway through the 2^nd frame as the ‘Horns kept firing the puck on net looking to get within one; with shots by Winston Day Chief, Dustin Moore and Brent Henke forcing Jacob DeSerres to react quickly, keeping the home team off the score sheet.
 
After two periods of play, shots on net still slightly favored the Dino’s with 28 to the ‘Horns 24.
 
Patiently outwaiting the Calgary defense, second-year forward Daniel Iwanksi gave the home crowd something to cheer about, releasing a rocket that would sneak through the five hole of DeSerres, earning the ‘Horns their first of the game and narrowing the gap to one.
 
The ‘Horns, playing shorthanded with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, again brought the crowd to their feet, as Gal took a great pass from Clayton Cumiskey, out-maneuvered the defense and roofed the puck short-side to knot the game at two’s, forcing overtime.
 
After the first five minutes of extra time, despite power play chances for both teams, neither club could score the decisive goal. The second overtime period started and both teams fought hard to earn the elusive goal, but it was freshman Hlookoff who would be the difference maker. After fanning on his first attempt, the rookie defensemen let go a second effort from his knees that would put it away, past a down and out DeSerres.
 
After surrendering two early goals, Bowles shut the door the rest of the way, turning aside 36 Dino shots, while DeSerres finished the night with 35 saves.
 
With the win the ‘Horns improve to 5-11-3, while the Dinos move to 9-9-1 with the overtime loss.
 
Tomorrow night, these same two teams will conclude the weekend home-and-home series in Calgary. Puck drops at 7:00pm at Father David Bauer.