CALGARY – On the day Hayley Wickenheiser was invested into the Order of Canada, her Calgary Dinos women's hockey team made up for her absence in spades as they defeated the UBC Thunderbirds 8-1 Friday night at Father David Bauer Arena.

BOX SCORE

Fourth year Dinos defenseman Melissa Zubick earned first star of the evening, notching two goals and two assists on the night, her first points of the season. Zubick was also +4 for the game.

The Dinos opened the scoring with Zubick notching her first at 6:07 of the first period. Less than 90 seconds after the Zubick goal, Dinos forward Sinead Tracey snatched up a rebound left by Thunderbirds rookie goalie Samantha Langford and went top shelf for her first goal of the season.   

With the score 2-0 early the Thunderbirds tightened it up at 10:21 when chaos in front of the Calgary net allowed for Thunderbirds forward Kaylee Chanakos to beat Dinos goalie Amanda Tapp, making the score 2-1.

The Dinos regained their two-goal advantage at 15:46 with Elana Lovell scoring her first of two goals on the night, assisted by Calaine Inglis and Stephanie Zvonkovic. From that point on it was all Dinos, as they asserted their dominance over the struggling Thunderbirds and proved why they were ranked No. 4 in last week's CIS top 10 poll. The Dinos added one more goal in the first when a Zubick slap shot from the point zoomed past Thunderbirds goalie Langford at 17:11.

Three more goals were tacked on by the Dinos in the second period, with the first coming at 3:33. Iya Gavrilova got hold of a rebound left by Thunderbirds goalie Langford and beat her top right corner. The next in the trio of third-period goals was a shorthanded goal by Dinos forward Erika Mitschke who went down the length of the ice uninterrupted by the Thunderbirds defense and proceeded to beat Langford top shelf, her first goal of the year. With the second period winding down Gavrilova notched her second goal in the game making the score 7-1 going into the third period.

The third period was relatively quiet in terms of action. The Dinos padded their lead at 16:59 on an unassisted Lovell score.

Thunderbirds goalie Langford in her third start of the year stopped 17 of 25 shots that came at her, with Dinos goalie Tapp saving 17 of 18 shots.

The Dinos outshot the visiting Thunderbirds 25-18, and Calgary was also an impressive 3 for 4 on the power play.

These two squads will face off again Saturday at Father David Bauer Arena, with puck drop at 7 p.m.

-UC-