To the surprise of none, Hayley Wickenheiser finds herself atop the Canada West scoring race three weeks into the regular season.
Averaging 2.5 points per game over her six contests so far, Wickenheiser has racked up 15 points (6 G, 9 A) and leads CIS in scoring through one quarter of the season. By contrast, the Dinos’ top scorers in the entire 2009-10 season finished with 12 points each.
Six of those 15 points came over the weekend as the Dinos split with the UBC Thunderbirds at the Olympic Oval. In Friday’s opener, she assisted on both Calgary goals and fired seven shots toward the Thunderbird goal as the Dinos fell 3-2 thanks to a sterling goaltending performance by UBC’s Melinda Choy.
A night later, however, Wickenheiser and the Dinos chased Choy from the game early in the third period en route to a 6-0 drubbing. This time Wickenheiser had nine shots on goal, scoring the only hat trick of the Canada West season so far and adding an assist to bring her weekend total to six points. Her hat trick goal was as spectacular as they come, picking up the puck at her own blue line and skating through four UBC defenders before sliding a backhand behind Hillary Talbot, who came in to relieve Choy.
Wick and the Dinos play an important home-and-home series with the Alberta Pandas, with whom they’re tied for first place, this weekend.
