CALGARY – Just two years into her coaching career, Danielle Goyette completed a remarkable turnaround for a Dinos women's hockey squad that hadn't had a season above .500 since 2000. Now, Alberta college gold medal in hand, Goyette and the Dinos embark on a much bigger challenge: a step back up to the CIS level for UC's first Canada West action since 2002.

The Dinos' last Canada West game was Feb. 2, 2002 at the Olympic Oval against the UBC Thunderbirds. Now, they will start afresh in CIS hockey 92 months later when they open the 2009-10 season in Vancouver against those very same Thunderbirds Friday night.

“It's a dream come true for the players,” Goyette commented. “Many of our players came to the University of Calgary because they were told that the Dinos would be in the CIS soon.”

The challenges are many. Canada West is home to two of the top teams in the country in Alberta and Manitoba, so there's better competition. The travel schedule of the ACAC, which featured home-and-home series every weekend and travel no further than Edmonton, pales in comparison to the schedule they will face this season from Vancouver to Winnipeg.

“I'm nervous to see how the players react to travelling on the plane,” Goyette noted, adding, “I think we are going to have a big challenge this year because we don't know the teams, so we will have to be well-prepared. It will be a lot more work for me to know their game and make sure that my players are ready to play against them.”

But the Dinos are ready to face the challenge. In Goyette's first two seasons the team went from perennial basement dwellers to the class of the ACAC, and the chance to play for a world champion and Olympic gold medalist has certainly helped in recruiting. A pre-season exhibition tournament in Lethbridge featured CIS opponents Saskatchewan and the host Pronghorns along with the NCAA's Robert Morris University – and the Dinos went 3-0 to win the tournament.

“If you look at them player for player they may have more talent than us, but I think that our work ethic as a team allowed us to play with them,” said the two-time Olympic gold medalist. “When we started against Lethbridge we knew we could compete. After we beat them, it gave us confidence to know that we weren't that far from the CIS level. I told the girls, 'it's not a big jump between the two leagues.'”

League play is another story, of course, but the early signs have been encouraging and a core of veterans that have been with the Dinos through the lean years want to make the most of their final years. The two fifth-year players on the team are forward Danielle Boyce and goaltender Katie Urness, and both will play key roles as Calgary steps up to Canada West.

Goyette wants those veteran players to lead by example.

“Those players know what to expect, they know what kind of coach I am, they know the team, they know the system. When you play the game and think you don't react as fast, but when you've been on the team you know what to do and you can be a step ahead of the play. I want the veterans to do this and lead by example.”

Boyce has CIS experience, playing at Mount Allison University in Nova Scotia before transferring to Calgary, while Urness was the all-star goaltender in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference last season, setting league records for both career shutouts and single-season shutouts. They join fourth-year seniors Beccy Niehaus, captain Cait O'Hara, Shannon Davidson, and Nicole Kuglin as the core of a young Dinos squad that is looking to shake up Canada West in its first season.

Goyette added that their objective this year is simple. “Our goal is to finish in the top four and make the playoffs.”

-UC-