CALGARY – The Calgary Dinos women's hockey team put in a dominating 60 minutes Friday night, as they shut out the Regina Cougars in a 7-0 rout at the Olympic Oval.
“I'm really happy with our game because we usually aren't strong at the start of our games and tonight we showed that we are able to fix that,” a satisfied Dinos head coach Danielle Goyette noted after the victory.
Five Dinos players put in multi-point performances, led by Hayley Wickenhieser with a goal and three assists and Elana Lovell with a goal and two helpers.
The game winning goal came early in the first period from the stick of rookie forward Jenna Smith while the teams fought four-on-four. That goal went in 4:41 into the game after Smith, set up by passes from Lovell and Dinos captain Cait O'Hara, was left with a free shot from the right circle. Making no mistake on the shot, Smith shelved one over the stick of Cougar goalie Lisa Urban netting the rookie striker her third goal of the year.
Following Smith's conversion, the Dinos notched their first insurance goal with Wickenheiser taking the puck end-to-end before depositing her tenth goal of the season, unassisted at 6:48.
The latter half of the first period saw the Cougars put themselves in dire straits after they took five penalties to the Dinos' one after the Wickenheiser goal. Cait O'Hara took advantage of one of those powerplays with a point shot that found twine at 13:22 with assists from Caline Inglis and Elana Lovell.
Before the period was out the Dinos would make the score 4-0 with a goal from Erika Mitschke, her fifth of the season with Wickenheiser assisting for her second point on the evening.
After that disastrous first period the Cougars replaced goalie Lisa Urban with Naticia Leskun, Up to that point, Urban had made six stops on ten shots.
The second period saw more of the same kind of scoring from the Dinos and more fight from the Cougars who saw significantly more powerplay time, three advantages to Calgary's one, and more shots on Dinos goalie Amanda Tapp.
Those shots would not result in any goals because of the impressive play of Tapp, who turned away all 20 shots fired her way including a three on one chance for Regina late in the first that looked like a sure goal. The shutout brings Tapp's total to four shutouts on the season, the highest in
Canada West.
The second period scoring was started by Elana Lovell who turned over a puck in the neutral zone and took off on a breakaway. With nobody between her and Leskun, Lovell easily deked one past the Regina netminder for her sixth goal of the season.
A powerplay goal midway through the second would pad the scoresheet further when a shot from Shannon Davidson from the blueline was redirected in front by Mitschke to net her sixth goal this year. Wickenheiser would take her second assist of the night from that marker which went in at 12:58 in the second.
The third period saw both goalies come up with big saves with Melissa Zubick scoring the only goal of that period, her first of the season, at 9:36. Smith and Wickenheiser assisted on that goal which was punched in out of a scrum in front of the net.
At the end of the game the Dinos had outshot their opponents 27-20 and their powerplay had produced two goals on seven chances while Regina's six advantages went unconverted.
These two teams will meet again tomorrow night, Saturday November 27th, as Regina will try to redeem themselves in the last game before the semester break. That game starts at 7:30PM at the Olympic Oval in Calgary.
-UC-
