CALGARY – The Dinos women's hockey team continued their winning ways Saturday night, defeating the MacEwan Griffins 2-0 at the Olympic Oval. This completes the Dinos sweep of the Griffins after a 4-3 shootout victory on November 9th in Edmonton.
The Dinos were led by rookie Elana Lovell, who had a two goal performance, as well as goalie Katie Urness, who posted her third shutout of the season.
“I think we played well for the whole game for the first time in a long time,” commented Urness following the game.
When asked about her shutout, Urness replied, “I had some help, only getting two shots in the first period makes my job easy.”
The game winning goal came from Elana Lovell halfway through the second period. After getting the puck from a MacEwan player, Lovell took off into the Griffin zone with a single defender in her way; feeding the puck through the defender's feet. Lovell was alone against Griffin goalie Kristen Sugiyama who could not stop the wrist shot that flew over her blocker.
Lovell's second goal came with seconds left in the game on an open net to put the game away.
The Dinos dominated offensively for most of the game but couldn't keep MacEwan from getting their chances. The Griffins flung 18 shots at Katie Urness, who was a wall for her team. Sugiyama faced 26 shots with only one slip up.
The Dinos penalty kill continued to be strong in this game, killing off five penalties which will reinforce their 94.1% penalty kill rate; their powerplay was less effective going zero for four.
The next challenge for the Dinos will be their biggest so far when they take on the SAIT Trojans next weekend. The matchup will be intense as both teams enter the weekend with a single loss. Additionally, the Dinos were responsible for eliminating SAIT from the playoffs last season.
Urness commented on the rivalry, “SAIT's always a good rivalry, we play them enough, it'll be a good game - they're always [a] good game”
That weekend matchup starts on Friday November 21st when SAIT hosts a 7:00PM face-off. The series concludes back at the Olympic Oval the following evening, November 22nd for a 7:30PM start.
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