CALGARY – The ACAC championship final between the University of Calgary Dinos and the Mount Royal College Cougars has been evened at two games apiece after Mount Royal won game four, 2-1 at Centennial Arena Saturday night.
With the series tied up, the game to decide the winner will take place tomorrow, March 15th, on Olympic Oval ice at 1:30 p.m.
“We definitely should have won,” Dinos defender Casey Irving said after the loss, ”but we weren't ready for it.”
Both teams came out of the gate in a slow and defensive way. The first five minutes saw only a single shot taken by the Dinos and none by the Cougars. The Dinos failed to convert on two powerplays while the Cougars couldn't convert on their one.
Things got emotional and rough in the second period when the Cougars Michelle Zeigler was sent off after body-checking a DInos player into the boards. 30 seconds later, Mount Royal's penalty kill streaked out of their zone on a breakaway but was stopped by Katie Urness, the Dinos goalie.
Following the rush, supporting players from the play piled into the crease, Christina Hodgson took this opportunity to shove Urness to the ice. After the ensuing scrum was broken up, Hodgson was rewarded with a roughing the goalie penalty and the Dinos began a minute and a half of five-on-three.
Unfortunately, the problems converting on the powerplay continued and the Dinos flailing powerplay couldn't find the back of the net.
Mount Royal drew first blood at 14:04 of the second when the league's leading playoff scorer, Chelsey Morill, was left un-harassed in the slot in front of Urness. The Cougars forwards behind the net managed to feed Morill the puck and she shelved it easily.
Morill would sink one more goal soon after, when, 17 seconds into the third, she was fed a cross-crease pass from her line-mate Madison Oulette. Urness stood no chance against the feed, which turned out to be the game winner.
The Dinos would rally to within one of the Cougars five minutes later on another five-on-three. Ali Webb was responsible for the initial shot on that tally which flew into traffic from the point before Sinead Tracy tipped the puck into the mesh.
“We had a good game it was just a matter of a slow start, if we can come out ready to play right away it's our game," said Webb. "We came out a little slow and if we had played like we did in the third for the whole game it would have been ours.”
The Dinos wouldn't rally on the scoreboard despite the rally in their play; they had one last powerplay before the game ended but were unable to get a second goal on the board. The Dinos loss is disappointing due to their offensive chances which outnumbered the Cougars 28-19; unfortunately, the chances couldn't be turned into goals leading to the loss.
This loss evens the best-of-five series at 2-2 meaning that one final game will take place to decide the champion. That game will happen less than 18 hours after the end of game four, 1:30 p.m. at the Olympic Oval on Sunday. The winner of that last game of the season will take home the championship and Sinead Tracy believes that the key to success for the last game of the 2008-09 season is simple.
“We just have to want it more, we have to be very hungry.”
-UC-
