CALGARY – The defending CIS champion Dinos emerged from their two-game series at UBC last weekend mostly unscathed, although they had to fight off a feisty Thunderbirds team in overtime Saturday night to maintain their undefeated record.
This week, the Dinos (4-0-0) host the Regina Cougars (2-2-0) for a two-game set at Father David Bauer Arena. The puck drops at 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday, and both games will be broadcast live on CanadaWest.tv.
Calgary's winning streak in regular season and playoff competition has stretched all the way to 21 games, dating back to a 4-2 loss to the Alberta Pandas back on Jan. 6. and will look to extend that to 23 games. Calgary has won the last six contests against the Cougars, dating back to early October 2009 – including all four meetings last year. In those four outings, Calgary outscored Regina 17-3 and picked up a pair of shutout wins, 4-0 and 2-0 on the road.
Hayley Wickenheiser returned to the lineup for the Dinos at UBC last weekend after missing the season-opening series with Lethbridge – and her presence was felt immediately. She picked up five points in those two games, adding three assists to the game-winning goals on both nights. She's one point off the team lead of six points, held by fourth-year forward
Calaine Inglis. Six of the top 15 scorers in the conference wear the red and white of the Dinos, with
Iya Gavrilova and
Jenna Smith joining Wickenheiser with five points while
Elana Lovell and
Stephanie Zvonkovic have four each.
Regina enters the season tied for fourth place with UBC after splitting their first two series, playing the same two teams the Dinos have faced so far this season. The Cougars opened the season with a 4-0 loss to the Thunderbirds in Vancouver before bouncing back for a 3-2 shootout win a night later. Last week, Regina hosted Lethbridge at the Co-operators Centre. In the opener, Alexis Larson's overtime goal gave the cougars the victory, but the Pronghorns stormed back a night later to split the series with a 4-3 win of their own.
Fifth-year forward Rianne Wight wraps up her CIS career this season and is the only multiple-goal scorer on the Cougars roster so far this season with a pair. Paige Wheeler and Stephanie Sawchuk match her at the top of the Regina scoring leaderboard with two points apiece. To this point in the season, Toni Ross and Jennifer Schmidt have split the goaltending duties almost right down the middle. Ross has picked up both Regina wins on the season, sporting a miniscule 0.87 goals-against average and an equally impressive .968 save percentage.
Next week's action has both teams on the road. Regina makes its second straight trip to Calgary to take on Mount Royal in a clash of the Cougars, while the Dinos head to Winnipeg for a date with the Manitoba Bisons. Calgary returns home Nov. 2-3 to face the Alberta Pandas at Father David Bauer Arena.
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