CALGARY – In something that is becoming a trend in the ACAC in recent years, the Dinos women's hockey team will take on an upstart rival in the form of the Mount Royal College Cougars to decide the conference championship.
The Dinos find themselves in this position after a dominating regular season where they accomplished 17 wins, tied with SAIT in for top spot. The Dinos were relegated to the second seed based on the first tiebreaker, regulation wins, and got a bye into the semi-final where they faced the MacEwan College Griffins. In retribution for last year's ACAC championship series, the Dinos swept MacEwan out of the playoffs in two tight games with final scores of 1-0 and 3-2.
Mount Royal has taken a far longer route to get to the finals after they finished the regular season in sixth place at the bottom of the league. Their quarterfinal match-up saw them take on the third ranked Red Deer College Queens. Mount Royal came out on top of that series by sweeping both games 3-2 and 2-1.
Their second round series was against the top-ranked SAIT Trojans, a matchup that few expected Mount Royal to win. The first game went to the Cougars after Sasha Webb scored the game winning goal in overtime to win 5-4. SAIT fought back in game two with Tonya Faasse notching the game winner halfway through the second overtime to win the game 2-1. The rubber match also went to double overtime with Mount Royal's Chrissy Hodgson scoring the goal that knocked off the Trojans.
This matchup is very similar to the final last season, where MacEwan ripped through the playoffs, upsetting Mount Royal and Red Deer, after a fifth place regular season finish to defeat the Dinos in the finals.
The last time these teams met in the regular season the Dinos were victorious in a 6-0 shutout win. Prior to that the teams split a fall home-and-home series, the Dinos won the first match 4-1 before falling short in the second match, 2-1.
Defensively, the Dinos hold the advantage in the form of veteran netminder Katie Urness. Katie finished the regular season in style, shattering the ACAC goaltending records in wins, goals-against average, and shutouts. Since then, she has backstopped the team to their semi-final win, gaining a 1.00 GAA over that series. Cougar goalie Sarah Oswald brings an impressive record including a 2.20 GAA over the course of the playoffs as well as a 4-1 record in the post season.
Offensively, the Dinos will be relying on the rookie line of Tiara Schoenroth, Shelby Davey and Elana Lovell who combined for the game winning goal in the first game against MacEwan and scored one more goal in the second game. The rest of the playoff scoring for the Dinos came from rookie Sinead Tracy who scored two goals. Assistant captain Ali Webb also posted a great second game, assisting on both of Tracy's markers.
The Dinos are hopeful for this game but are fully aware that they can't take the Cougars lightly.
“It just goes to show that anything can happen in the playoffs so we have to come out to play every game, it doesn't matter where we finished in the league it's a whole new start,” commented Webb following the first playoff game against MacEwan.
The finals are a best-of-five format which will span two weekends. The first two games will face-off starting Friday, March 6. The Dinos will host the Cougars at the Olympic Oval at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night for the first game. The second game will take place at Mount Royal's Centennial Arena on Sunday, March 8 at 7:45 p.m.
Games 3-5 will go next weekend, with the Dinos holding home-ice advantage in the series.
-UC-
2009 ACAC Women's Hockey Championship: Calgary Dinos vs. Mount Royal Cougars
Game 1: Mt. Royal @ Calgary, Friday, March 6, 7:30 p.m., Olympic Oval
Game 2: Calgary @ Mt. Royal, Sunday, March 8, 7:45 p.m., Centennial Arena
Game 3: Mt. Royal @ Calgary, Friday, March 13, 7:30 p.m., Olympic Oval
Game 4: Calgary @ Mt. Royal, Saturday, March 14, 7 p.m., Centennial Arena (if necessary)
Game 5: Mt. Royal @ Calgary, Sunday, March 15, 1:30 p.m., Olympic Oval (if necessary)
