EDMONTON - Third-year winger Karla Bourke, of Onoway, Alta., scored the only goal of the game as the No. 4-ranked Alberta Pandas hockey team registered a 1-0 defeat over the No. 7 Calgary Dinos, Saturday night at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.

BOX SCORE

The win gives Alberta a weekend sweep of the Dinos after they skated to a 2-1 shootout win on Friday night in Calgary.  The result also clinches a playoff spot for the defending CIS champion Pandas.

Calgary was without star Hayley Wickenheiser, who was injured late in Friday's contest and did not travel to Edmonton for the rematch.

Michala Jeffries, Alberta's sophomore goalie from Fiske, Sask., stopped 22 shots for the win, her sixth in Canada West play, and fourth shutout.  She was also in net against the Dinos on Friday night, helping the Pandas to come out on top of another low-scoring affair against Calgary.

In fact, considering that these two wildrose provincial teams boast the most prolific offences in Canada West, they combined to score just nine total goals total four games, with each team winning two games apiece, including one in overtime game and one shootout.

Defence and goaltending certainly was the order of the day in Edmonton as well, as second-year Amanda Tapp was strong between the pipes for the Dinos.

Bourke, who had notched seven points in eight games coming into this series, including five goals, beat Tapp at 9:56 of the second period, finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with defenceman Andrea Boras.

Prior to that goal, Alberta had been stymied by the Dino defence and Tapp, especially in the first period when the Pandas had a 5-on-3 power-play advantage that didn't generate much.

When Calgary got their turn with the extra attacker, including a two-man advantage in the first period as well, Jeffries shut the door time and time again.  The Dinos constantly buzzed around the Alberta goal, but each shot, tip or wrap around that made its way into the blue paint was smothered, caught, or kicked to the corner by Jeffries.

Both teams had ample opportunities on the power-play as well, but neither accomplished much, with the Dinos posting a 0-8 mark, including two third period opportunities, while the Pandas went 0-9, including Rianna Magee's blueline slap shot that rang off the post behind Tapp late in the third.

Alberta now enters their bye weekend with a 14-3-3 mark, and first place in Canada West in their possession with 31 points.  However, the Dinos are in action next weekend, at home to fourth place Saskatchewan, and sit just four points back of the Pandas with a 13-5-1 record.  A pair of wins by Calgary next weekend would see them slip into a tie with Alberta for first place, and with the season series split between the two teams, should they remain tied, first place would be decided by goals for-and-against between the two teams, which favours Calgary by one goal.

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