CALGARY – The Dinos women's hockey team came one step closer to vengeance for last year's ACAC final when they felled the MacEwan Griffins 2-1 at the Olympic Oval Friday night. This win puts the Dinos one win away from a season sweep of the Griffins after the Calgary club swept the first home-and-home series in the fall.
The game was decided on the powerplay with all three goals scored when on a man advantage.
The Dinos dominated first period, outshooting the visitors 9-4. The back and forth hockey of the first was provided due to only a single Dino penalty being assessed all period.
The second opened on a Griffin power play, which didn't bear fruit, and proceeded to swing in the Dinos favour. At 12:06 minutes into the second the referees saw a flurry of action calling a series of penalties that concluded with 30 seconds worth of five-on-three play to the Dinos advantage. At 14:06 the Dinos drew first blood as Danielle Braaten ripped a point shot into Griffin Goalie Alicia Monahan; the goalie made the save before Shannon Davidson picked off the rebound and put the Dinos on the board.
Despite the score, the second period saw the Dinos outshot 8-5 with goalie Katie Urness standing on her head to stop a couple of MacEwan breakaways.
The third period saw the intensity increase with Lianne Legere almost bouncing a puck into the net six minutes in; unfortunately, that puck landed on top of the net instead of inside. Not to be deterred, a minute and a half later on the powerplay Danielle Boyce fired a rocket from the point that was redirected by Shelby Davey right through Monahan's five-hole.
Davey, when asked about the difficulty of deflecting shots said, “No, it's not hard, just get your stick in front and make it harder for the goalie.”
Despite being down 2-0 MacEwan had the opportunity for one last push following a Dino penalty with one minute left in the third. The ensuing six-on-four allowed MacEwan to swamp the front of the Dino net and bash away at the puck which eventually found its way past Katie Urness; that goal was attributed to Leanna Kordyban with assists by Lauren Chiswell and Emily Hnatuik.
“We ended off good,” Davey commented after the win. "We had some ups and down but in the end pulled it together.”
The special teams were all important this game with all three goals scored on the powerplay; in this stat the Dinos went two for five while the Griffins achieved one goal on five attempts. On the goaltending front Katie Urness faced 22 shots while Monahan saw 27 shots fly her way.
The Dinos are entering their final three games of the season. Their next match, a rematch against MacEwan, faces off on Saturday night in Edmonton.
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