Soyko sweep gives Pandas 2-1 win over Dinos

The Calgary Dinos were out-scored, out-shot, and out-played by the Pandas hockey team on January 11, in their only regular season matchup.

Though, a second period stall, two back-to-back penalties, and a tied game put a stain on the Pandas’ performance.

“We actually didn’t really play a great game tonight. I felt like there was a lot of things that that we needed to be tighter in,” Pandas hockey head coach, Howie Draper said.

“We needed to be tighter defensively. Puck movement wasn’t as strong as we needed to be. We were forcing the puck a lot into their defensive structure.”

He’s not wrong. Weak passing — a theme throughout the whole game — was saved only by a disproportionate amount of time spent in the Pandas’ offensive zone, compared to the defensive — at least for the first period.

Pandas’ power-play is not where it used to be

The Pandas went from out shooting the Dinos by five in the first, to only one in the second and third periods. On its own, this might not have been a problem, but paired with drawing two penalties in the first to taking three in the second, it makes you wonder where their momentum and discipline went.

“We’re hoping to be a little bit more consistent in the second half,” Draper said.

Despite two power-play opportunities in the first and third, the Pandas didn’t make anything out of it. This was an odd turn of events for a team that went into this game with the second best power-play in Canada West.

“They played a very aggressive penalty kill, and we had some trouble responding to that. Our puck movement wasn’t clean. We weren’t supporting each other like we needed to. We just have to make sure that we’re getting back to this solid, clean puck movement, and then maybe we’ll be able to create some more opportunities on the power-play.”

Now, the lacklustre power-play can’t simply be chalked up to disappointing puck movement, but rather the Dinos’ unique methods to killing the penalty. The biggest and most frustrating part to their kill was freezing the puck at the boards.

“That’s frustrating, because the referees are saying, ‘move it, move it, move it,’ but they’re not trying to. So there needs to be some kind of repercussion there,” according to Draper.

As was the intent, the Pandas had a slower offence, and a slower game all together.

Soyko scoring steals the win after strong start and finish

But a slowed down offence wasn’t going to stop Pandas star, Abby Soyko, in claiming both of the Pandas’ goals in their 2-1 victory.

“We’ve got her with Jadyn Morden and Madison Willan, and they’re very strong, complimentary players. They can both score, they can both pass. Right now, she’s got the hot hands, so they’re getting the puck to her, and it’s working out really well,” Draper said.

Interestingly enough, Soyko has been struggling with injuries her whole career. But she’s now “finding her feet” after staring the season late.

Pandas look to “push the puck” on Olympic size ice

Soyko, Morden, and Willan will hopefully push the team to another win over Calgary on January 11, with Olympic size ice.

Though poor passing could prove costly against a team that knows how to expose the Pandas over the middle.

“We just need to make sure that we’re strong between the dots. Sometimes, when we go from our tiny little ice to the big ice, we get spread out because we sort of lose our way a little bit,” Drapper said.

Understandable, but with a 10-point lead in the Eastern conference, the Pandas have room to adjust.