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Dinos, Golden Bears lose

Kevin Baker had a goal and an assist and Julian Cimadamore scored the winner in the third period Friday as the Western Mustangs defeated the Calgary Dinos 3-2 at the Canadian university men’s hockey championship.Josh McQuade had the other goal for Western (1-0), while Anthony Grieco made 21 saves for the victory.

FREDERICTON — Kevin Baker had a goal and an assist and Julian Cimadamore scored the winner in the third period Friday as the Western Mustangs defeated the Calgary Dinos 3-2 at the Canadian university men’s hockey championship.

Josh McQuade had the other goal for Western (1-0), while Anthony Grieco made 21 saves for the victory.

Brock Nixon and Teegan Moore replied for Calgary (0-2). Dustin Butler made 19 saves in taking the loss for the Dinos, who were eliminated with their second loss in Pool A round-robin play.

Western and host New Brunswick will play Saturday night for the right to go to Sunday’s final.

In Pool B action earlier Friday, Phil Mangan had a goal and an assist to lead the St. Francis Xavier X-Men to a 3-1 win over the Alberta Golden Bears.

Baker opened the scoring for Calgary just 1:30 into the first period and added an assist on McQuade’s breakaway goal to make it 2-0 at 6:07 of the second.

“I’m proud of the effort and I thought the guys executed the gameplan very well,” Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer said. “To get an early goal like that I think really helped everyone’s confidence.”

After Calgary cut it to 2-1, Cimadamore capitalized on a Dinos turnover to score on breakaway at 14:48 of the third.

Moore added a late goal for Calgary, but the Dinos would get no closer.

“It’s to hard to go down early,” Dinos head coach Mark Howell said. “Western was ready to go right at the drop of the puck and we weren’t quite at the same level. It’s an awful feeling knowing your season is done.”

In the early game, R.D. Chisholm and Kevin Undershute had the other goals for St. F.X. (1-1). Brennan Wray added two assists and Joseph Perricone stopped 24 shots.

Derek Ryan replied for Alberta (0-1) while Kurtis Mucha made 25 saves.

The win was a big one for the X-Men, who needed a victory to remain in contention. St. F.X. lost its opening game 2-1 to the McGill Redmen on Thursday. Alberta takes on McGill (1-0) on Saturday in the final Pool B contest with all three teams still capable of advancing to Sunday’s final.

McGill would advance with a win Saturday. The X-Men would qualify if Alberta beats McGill by one or two goals or if Alberta wins by a three-goal margin, except by a 3-0 score.

Alberta would move on if it defeats the Redmen by four or more goals. Should Alberta beat McGill 3-0, then it and St. F.X. would face off in a shootout following the Bears-Redmen game.

“There’s no quitting in this team,” X-Men coach Brad Peddle said. “Now, we’re going to turn into big Alberta fans (on Saturday).”

With the score tied 1-1 late in the second, Chisholm’s blast from the point got past Mucha to give St. F.X. a 2-1 lead at 17:55. Undershute made it 3-1 at 1:16 of the third.

Mangan banged a rebound past Mucha to give St. F.X. a 1-0 lead at 16:08 of the first before Ryan tied it for Alberta on the power play at 4:46 of the second.

“Before the game we just said let’s go out there and have some fun,” Mangan said. “We just wanted to give it our all and give ourselves a chance (Saturday).”

The high-powered Golden Bears offence came into the tournament scoring a Canada West-high 112 goals in 28 games.

“I don’t think we played our best game but credit to X, they played a great game,” Alberta head coach Eric Thurston said. “We’ll need to open things up (Saturday). And we have the skills to do it. We can’t be afraid of losing. We have to play to win.”