CALGARY – With a short week to prepare for an important weekend, the seventh-ranked Calgary Dinos will meet the fourth-ranked Alberta Pandas in a home-and-home series that has huge implications for the top spot in Canada West.

Currently the Dinos sit with a 13-4-0 record and 26 points with one previous game from their schedule still to be decided. That game, suspended in the shootout, will either net them two more points for a shootout win or one point for a shootout loss and will be completed on Feb. 4 in Winnipeg prior to the next Dinos-Manitoba Bisons contest.

The last time the Dinos lost was on Nov. 6 in Saskatoon. Since then the Dinos have swept two games against UBC, Lethbridge, Regina and won one game against Manitoba. The last week has seen them be very busy after easily beating UBC in Vancouver by 8-5 and 9-2 decisions on the weekend before taking Lethbridge down in a 2-1 overtime finish on Tuesday.

Alberta enters the weekend after having similar success, their 12-3-3 record and 27 point putting them at the top of Canada West alongside the Dinos. Their current win streak stands at five games but they have a point streak going that has stretched to 11 games. Their last regulation loss was on Oct. 30 – when the Dinos shut them out 2-0. Since then the Pandas have gone 9-0-2.

The last series between these two teams was a weekend of firsts. The first game, a 2-1 shootout victory for the Dinos, was the first time in eleven years that Calgary had downed Alberta in CIS women's hockey. Following that victory, the Dinos put together an even more impressive effort for the 2-0 shutout. That game marked the first time the Pandas had been swept in a two-game series since 2007, a shock for the perennial Canada West powerhouse.

A large part of the Dinos success comes from the stick of Hayley Wickenheiser, the Canada West athlete of the week. So far in 2011, Wickenheiser has continued to lead the team with 13 points in four games in including a two-goal, four-assist effort in the first game against UBC. Also helping the cause is the rookie trio of Jenna Smith, Erika Mitschke, and Kira Sonnenberg, who have each notched three goals and an assist in the four games since the calendar turned.

Alberta is always a threat offensively and will rely on its veteran strikers: fifth-year forwards Melody Howard and Leah Copeland as well as third-year forward Sarah Hilworth. All three of these players occupy a spot in the top 10 Canada West scorers with Hilworth leading the way with 11 goals and 10 assists, Copeland close behind with eight goals and 12 assists, and Howard joining them with eight goals and nine assists this season.

The home-and-home series opens in Calgary on Friday where the provincial rivals will meet at the Olympic Oval with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.

Following that game both teams travel to Edmonton for a Saturday night tilt at Claire Drake Arena starting at 7 p.m.

-UC-