CALGARY – The Dinos women's hockey team dropped their second straight game to the SAIT Trojans tonight, 4-2. The first game, Friday night at SAIT, was a close affair which saw SAIT come out on top 2-1. The second game was a physical match which the Dinos almost reeled back in before SAIT buried an empty netter in the last second.
This loss has big implications for the ACAC standings knocking the Dinos out of top spot, a position they've retained for most of the regular season. Both teams finish the regular season with 34 points because of 17 wins, SAIT comes out on top due to their regular-time win statistic which is slightly higher than the Dinos'.
The game itself was a physical affair with bodies and elbows being thrown around the ice routinely; this set up a nearly equal first period where neither team scored despite each side drawing six shots on the opposition and the Dinos gaining a single powerplay.
The second period saw the Trojan fireworks begin. Following a Dino penalty nine and a half minutes in Emily Burton wired a wrist-shot through some traffic to the right of Katie Urness, the puck buried leaving the Trojans with a 1-0 lead. The second SAIT goal came on the stick of Bret Seaton out of a pile of players in the Dino slot area; Urness couldn't see the puck and Seaton's shot slid past her. Offensively the second was characterized by the Dinos not managing to capitalize on their chances as they outshot the Trojans 9-5.
The SAIT goaltender, Lindsay Coghlan, didn't achieve the perfect night she may have been dreaming about after turning away those nine shots as the Dinos come out on fire in the third. The first Dino goal came at 1:35 in the third, just seconds after SAIT had killed off a penalty; Elana Lovell ripped the shot top right on Coghlan from the high slot, ending the SAIT shutout; Ali Webb and Sinead Tracy picked up assists on that marker.
Unfortunately for the home team the Trojans responded quickly with Rylie Padjen sniping a shot into Urness, the Dino netminder got a piece of the puck but the resulting ricochet still found the back of the net.
The Dinos poured pressure onto SAIT for the remainder of the third and were rewarded at 14:42 when Beccy Neihaus slipped a bad angle shot into the net through the five-hole from in close, Cassandra Atkins picked up the assist on the second Dino goal.
The pressure continued into the final five minutes but couldn't yield another Dino marker leaving the score at 4-2 as SAIT slipped in a last second empty net goal.
Cassandra Atkins, who assisted the second goal, commented on the teams play following the loss. “We need to come out and play all three periods, we only came out in the third. If we come out in the first and second there's no team that can beat us.” She added, “the reffing was great, they let a lot go so that we could actually play. I'd like to see more rough, physical, games like this.”
Head coach Danielle Goyette also had her say about the team's performance during the regular season. “I'm really happy with the season we had, but I'm a little disappointed. We were aiming for the first position. The playoffs are a totally new season, it doesn't matter where you finish the season, you have to show up,” she said about the upcoming playoffs.
“Sometimes two losses before the playoffs is not a bad thing,”
“It's humbling,” added assistant coach Demitrios Stefanopoulos.
“It's going to wake up the team, they're going to learn that if we don't work together as a team we won't be successful, hopefully we'll be able to come back and be better as a team,” Goyette stated.
The team is set for a bye through the first round of the playoffs and will substitute this with an exhibition game against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. That game goes ahead in Oyen on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
The first round of the ACAC playoffs see third ranked Red Deer College take on sixth ranked Mount Royal College while fourth ranked MacEwan College faces down fifth ranked NAIT. The lowest ranking winner of those games will have a date with SAIT two weeks from now while the higher ranking team will face the Dinos.
-UC-
