CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos are ACAC champions after a 1-0 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars in Game 5 of the championship series.
It is the Dinos' first ACAC title in women's hockey after seven years in the conference, and a stepping stone to the program's potential move back to CIS competition next season.
Head coach Danielle Goyette has led this squad for the last two years, taking them into the finals last year before winning it all this season.
“It was a great series," she said. "The two teams showed a great level of hockey and they both came to the last game.”
“I think we have to give credit to the players,” she added, “they worked hard all year and they deserve what`s happening to them.”
Assistant captain #Cait O`Hara# summarized the game and her team's feeling after the game.
“We knew what we had to do, we had to keep the game simple and outwork them. We knew that we were the better team. When Sinead scored we knew we had it, we weren't even worried. On the five-on-three we weren't even worried, we knew we had it.”
Sinead Tracy scored the game winner in the second period and was humble about her contribution.
“I'm just happy that we won, I couldn't have cared who scored it," she said.
“It feels unreal,” she added. “Our whole team played absolutely unbelievably, a great team effort.”
The game started off on a bad foot for the Dinos, with the first period a back and forth affair throughout. The beginning was all Dinos and the Cougars handed the Dinos a powerplay less than two minutes in to increase the momentum for the home team. The Dinos were unable to capitalize on that powerplay and handed the momentum back to the Cougars by taking penalties at 8:43, 12:12 and 17:36. Fortunately for the home team, the Cougars couldn't capitalize on any of those chances as the Dinos defense shut the door. All in all, the Dinos were outshot 12-10 by the Cougars in an offensive display of a first period.
The second period was the time to shine for both goalies. Dino Katie Urness faced seven shots in that period on-route to a 23 save shutout; Sarah Oswald faced nine in the second and 30 shots by the end of the game.
Urness made two big saves in the second as a result of missed clearing attempts by her defenders. The first came two minutes in, the Cougars forward stole the clearing attempt behind the Dino net and proceeded to skate out front. Miraculously, Urness was able to get a pad on the resulting scoring attempt, keeping the game scoreless. A similar situation would arise ten minute later when Cougar forward Chelsey Morill, the leading playoff scorer in the ACAC, intercepted a clearing attempt at the blueline and let rip with a shot that was denied by Urness.
Oswald had a similar period that culminated in a Dinos powerplay 16 minutes in. On that powerplay the Dinos offense rained shots into Oswald from the point. Oswald turned into a wall during that sequence, stopping a half dozen scoring chances.
All told, the Dinos suffered a single penalty that period while the Cougars got hit with two.
The third period was the most exciting period of hockey of the entire year, as both teams knew that a single goal could, and would, end the series.
That goal would come at 4:08 of the third period when Ali Webb broke into the Mount Royal zone against two Mount Royal defenders. After drawing her defender to the boards, Ali dumped the puck into the left circle for an onrushing Sinead Tracy; Tracy made no mistakes on the attack and shelved the puck over Oswald's blocker.
“It was a huge weight off our shoulders,” smiled Dinos forward Shannon Davidson,” because we wait so long to get that first goal while a lucky bounce could have done it for them.”
The goal didn't alleviate all of the pressure though, after the home team took two penalties with five minutes left, giving the Cougars a minute and a half of five-on-three play.
“It was terrible, there isn`t much you can do because you only have three girls on the ice and the rest of you have to sit back.," Davidson said about that powerplay. “You have to trust your teammates, we have a lot of trust and so it worked out for us.”
Katie Urness was another big part of that trust as she stood on her head to stop the Cougars from evening the score on the five-on-three.
With the ACAC title under their belt the Dinos will look to their next challenge, a likely move to the Canada West conference for the 2009-10 season.
“We deserved this, we worked hard all year," said Davidson. "I'm excited to go into the CIS now, this is the perfect end to the ACAC for us.”
-UC-
