Panthers upset top-ranked Dinos to advance to U CUP semifinals

By Thomas Becker

They call it March Madness for a reason.

Across North America, national championships are being played and many schools—and their loyal fanbases—are having their hopes and dreams dashed. In front of a sell-out crowd Friday night, the UPEI Panthers broke the hearts of the Calgary Dinos, upsetting the nation's top-ranked team 4-2 to advance to the U CUP semifinals.

This marked the first time since 1987 that UPEI won a national tournament game and the third time since 2015 that an eighth seed took down the No. 1 team in the country.

After the game, head coach Forbes MacPherson reflected on his team's historic win. 

"Obviously we're feeling pretty good right now," he said. "We had a game plan going in and we felt from the opening puck drop that our guys were ready to go and we're really proud of our group." 

The Panthers boasted a balanced attack with four players finding the back of the net, including Drake Pilon, Andrew Picco, Kaleb Pearson and Troy Lajeunesse, while Kyle Maksimovich had two assists in the win.

"It's a great feeling," said Pearson, who scored a pivotal goal in the third period. "Everyone worked so hard for this moment and we're just looking forward to the rest of the weekend now."

UPEI set the tone early, especially on the defensive end where they limited Calgary to just one shot in the game's opening 10 minutes.

Fueled by their stingy defence, the Panthers' offence came alive late in the period. On a power play at 15:07, Matt Brassard delivered a pass to Pilon in the right circle where he roofed a wrist shot for the opening goal.

About three and half minutes later, Maksimovich passed it back to the point where Picco fired the one-timer by goaltender Carl Tetachuk to make 2-0 going into the second period.

Tetachuk responded with a big save early in the middle stanza to keep it at a two-goal deficit. The rookie netminder stretched out completely to deny Maksimovich's backhand attempt off a rebound.

That save seemed to spark the Dinos, who controlled the play throughout the frame and broke through on a power play at 10:26. On the scoring play, Bradley Schoonbaert gathered a short pass from Connor Gutenberg, took a couple strides in the slot and wired a wrist shot by Jonah Capriotti, who was screened by six-foot-five forward Max Patterson.

After a shaky second period, the Panthers came out flying in the third and quickly added to their lead. Pearson got the scoring going again a little over a minute into the period when he picked off a pass in the neutral and went in alone before slipping a backhand by Tetachuk to make 3-1.

"I just tried to get my jets going as fast as I could and just made a move," Pearson said. "Honestly, I didn't think it was going to go in when the goalie came with me, but maybe it was the luck of the Irish."

At 7:06, Lajeunesse extended the lead to 4-1, which proved to be the dagger. Linemate TJ Shea raced down the right side and fed a cross-ice pass to the veteran forward, who tapped in the easy goal.

Calgary's Josh Maser added a goal late in the game, as he whipped a quick shot off a faceoff win, but it wasn't nearly enough in the end as they fell 4-2.

Capriotti recorded 20 saves in the win, while Tetachuk turned aside 27 shots.

Now that they have a semifinal berth locked up, the Panthers want and expect more from this championship experience.

"We'll take another few minutes to enjoy this one, but we have bigger goals in mind now," MacPherson said.

Photo Credit: Janessa Hogan and Mike Needham