CALGARY – The UC Dinos women's hockey team have taken a 2-1 series lead in the ACAC championship over the Mount Royal College Cougars with a 3-1 victory at the Olympic Oval Friday night.

The Dinos have the potential to win the championship if they win the next game that starts at 7:00PM on Saturday, March 14th, at Centennial Arena.

The Dinos hit the throttle early, spurred on by motivational words from a hockey legend, and didn't let up throughout.

“We had [Haley] Wickenheiser come in before the game,” stated a smiling Danielle Boyce after the game. ”Everyone's faces were glowing when she walked in. She gave us a nice little speech, she had just come in from Sweden playing with the men's team. She said 'you guys are a great team; you are better than this team so go prove it. I'll be watching' when you have your hero from when your growing up watching you, it's a big deal.”

This motivation carried the Dinos into their strongest first period of the playoffs. Elana Lovell almost notched the first goal of the game four minutes in; she beat two Mount Royal defenders on her way past the blueline and ripped a shot that was inches high, ringing it off the crossbar.

The Dinos would convert before the period was over when Melissa Zubick found herself on the Mount Royal blueline after serving her second penalty of the period.

“Originally, I wasn't supposed to be on the ice and I yelled for the puck up the middle, then I shot the puck at the net hoping it would go in and the hard work coming behind me put the puck in the net.” Zubick commented after the game.

Zubick's shot was saved by the Cougars goalie, Sarah Oswald, but the rebound bounced out to be picked up by an onrushing Cassandra Atkins, who buried the first goal into the half empty net.

The Dinos wouldn't notch a second goal until the second period despite outshooting the Cougars 8-5.

That second period was more of the same with the Dinos outshooting the Cougars 9-5 resulting in a single goal.

That goal came less than two minutes into the second from Dinos forward Tiara Schoenroth. Tiara broke into the Cougar zone on a two-on-one with Shelby Davey.

“I grabbed it, skated it, I saw the girl [Oswald] turn to Shelby and so I took the shot and got lucky, it went top shelf,” Schoenroth commented after the game.

The game was rough from the opening draw and that came to a head late in the second period. Taylor McLeod continued the rough play by riding Melissa Zubick hard into the boards behind the DInos net. Zubick was extremely slow to get up and required some help to get off the ice.

“Think that it was a great call,” said Danielle Boyce, “it was completely a hit to the head. If [the referee] didn't call it a major then Goyette would have...” Boyce paused before finishing, ”there would have been a lot of conflict going on.”

McLeod was handed a game misconduct for the hit and the Cougars suffered five minutes of penalty kill because of it. Zubick returned before the third period. Mount Royal would be successful on the long penalty kill as well as all others throughout the game. Neither team managed to capitalize on the powerplay throughout the game with the Dinos failing on five attempts, including the major; while the Cougars couldn't capitalize on their own five chances.

The Cougars rallied slightly in the third when, four minutes in, Hayley Sutherland managed a bad-angle shot on Dino goalie Katie Urness. The shot bounced up on Urness, landing behind her in the Dinos crease; no one was sure if the shot went in, but the referees decided that Chelsey Morill managed to get the puck to cross the line.

Tiara Schoenroth would notch the insurance goal ten minutes later on a play similar to the Mount Royal marker. Instead of bouncing up, the puck bounced through Oswald's crease before Schoenroth finished the play and sent the Dinos into a 2-1 series lead.

The ACAC championship is a best-of-five series, which means that the Dinos are one win away from taking the championship that eluded them last year.

The next game in the series takes place Saturday March 14th at Centennial Arena for a 7:00PM start. If the Cougars win that game, a final match will take place on Sunday on the Olympic Oval ice at 1:30PM.

-UC-