Hayley Wickenheiser’s return to the site of many of her 2010 Olympic exploits, Doug Mitchell Arena at UBC in Vancouver, certainly didn’t disappoint.
Wickenheiser was the catalyst for an offensive explosion for the Calgary Dinos, who emerged from their two-game series against the Thunderbirds with 17 goals and a pair of victories, 8-5 and 9-2. She got it started just 11 seconds into the first period Friday night with her 14th goal of the year, adding a second shorthanded early in the second period. She added four assists on the night to set a school single-game record with six points.
A night later she was at it again, setting up two of Calgary’s five third-period goals in a 9-2 romp over the Thunderbirds.
Despite playing just 13 games, five fewer than the four players directly behind her in the conference scoring race, Wickenheiser holds a seven-point lead over Saskatchewan’s Cara Wooster with 37 points – a 2.8 points-per-game average. The Dinos now sit with a 12-4-0 record as they head into their final eight games of the 2010-11 season.
