CALGARY - On Oct. 16 the puck drops on a new season for the ACAC finalist Dinos Women's hockey team. With Danielle Goyette at the reins for her second season as head coach the Dinos hope to improve upon their second place finish from last season.
The team fought their way to a third place finish in the regular season last year with a 12-6-4 record; this set up an easy sweep of the sixth ranked NAIT Ooks in the first round of the playoffs. The semi-finals against SAIT were a grueling affair for the team with 14 periods played over the course of three games; in the end, the Dinos came out on top with a series ending goal by Leanne Legere in the third overtime period of game three. Unfortunately, the Dinos came up one step short of gold when the upstart MacEwan College Griffins bested the Dinos in four games during the finals.
Coach Goyette commented on the changes to the squad for the 2008/2009 season, “we're happy with the look of the team, we've brought on 11 new and 13 returning players; four of last year's players were cut at camp, [that]'s not fun but you have to do it.”
Key returnees from last season's squad include Danielle Boyce, Beccy Niehaus, Shannon Davidson and Cait O'Hara; as well as Ali Webb and Katie Urness who earned honours for being named to the first and second all Conference teams respectively.
Some of the new talent Goyette points to includes Shelby Davis, a new recruit from Saskatchewan; and Sinead Tracy of St. Albert. Goyette commented that another promising first year player, Elana Lovell of Kamloops, is just returning to the squad after being injured at training camp.
“These young players are hungry; they have natural talent and want to learn. The players who are back know what it takes and can work with the young players and teach them to be successful.”
One exciting development this year is the addition of, “real defencemen,”
As Goyette put it, "last year's defence, like Sarah Clowes, Ali Webb and Cait O'Hara, are [usually] on offence. We have 6 players that actually play defence this year.”
The schedule for the team this year includes 22 games against the five Alberta teams that make up the ACAC; Red Deer College, MacEwan College, NAIT,SAIT and Mount Royal College. Of particular note for the Dinos will be their Calgary rivals Mount Royal and SAIT, both teams that made an early exit from the playoffs after clinching first and second place in the regular season. MacEwan College may also prove challenging as their team stepped up in the playoffs last year and defeated three teams ranked higher than them on route to the championship.
Regardless of the completion Goyette's prescription for success remains unchanged, “everyone has to put work ethic and talent together.”
With that in mind the team will begin the regular season October 16th with an away game against Red Deer College. The rematch marks their first home game on October 18th, also against the Griffins; start time is 7 p.m. at the Olympic Oval, where all of the Dinos home games will be played.
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