BOX SCORE

CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos are headed to the CIS women's hockey championship in Edmonton as the Canada West champions.

The Dinos shut out the Alberta Pandas 2-0 Saturday night to sweep their best-of-three Canada West final series and lifted the championship trophy for the first time in school history at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park.

Iya Gavrilova scored what turned out to be the game-winner late in the first period – her seventh goal of the playoffs – while Erin Davidson added some insurance in the third for the Dinos. Amanda Tapp made 17 saves for the shutout.

“It's a nice way to finish at home,” said Dinos head coach Danielle Goyette. “We have to be proud of what we accomplished tonight, the first time it's ever happened at the University of Calgary, and it's something we have to celebrate. As a coach, I don't think I could have asked for more from my players tonight.”

The Dinos outshot the Pandas 23-17 on a night when scoring chances were hard to come by as both teams bottled up the area in front of the goal effectively. Calgary was able to take advantage of its opportunities, while the Pandas missed a couple of wide open chances that could have drastically changed the momentum of the game.

Gavrilova's goal at the 16:51 mark was a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time. The puck took a funny bounce off the end boards and came into the goal mouth with Alberta netminder Kaitlyn Chapman hugging the opposite post. Jenna Smith poked the puck through a maze of skates, and Gavrilova slid it into the open net to give the Dinos the 1-0 advantage heading into the second.

Shots were just 6-5 Calgary in a tightly-played second period. Neither team was able to light the lamp again until Calaine Inglis entered the zone on the left wing just over six minutes into the third. Inglis carried the puck behind the Alberta goal before throwing out a centering pass, which Davidson poked between the legs of Chapman to give the Dinos a 2-0 lead.

The Pandas poured it on from there, and had a couple of their best chances of the night despite getting only five shots on goal in the third. Tapp made her biggest stop of the night in the final minutes as she stoned Alannah Kedra point-blank in front to preserve the shutout.

Alberta had a couple of great opportunities on two-on-one rushes, but Tapp made some key saves while one set-up pass skipped over the forward's stick with a gaping cage in front of her.

“We knew it would be a game of inches, and it was about going shift-by-shift and focusing on the process,” said Goyette. “It was a much faster game tonight, with better puck movement on both sides. (Alberta) didn't have a lot of shots tonight, but every shot they took was dangerous. We have to give credit to our goalie – if you want to win a championship, you need goaltending and she made the saves when we needed them.”

Tapp allowed just one goal in the series and just two through four games in the Canada West playoffs, recording a .974 save percentage and a 0.50 goals-against in the postseason.

Chapman allowed two goals on 23 shots on the night for the Pandas in a losing cause. Neither team was able to convert on the power play on the night, with Alberta going 0-for-2 while the Dinos were held scoreless on their four power play opportunities.

Both teams had already earned their spots at the national championship tournament, which the Pandas host. They will return to action when the CIS championship rolls into Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton March 8-11.

-UC-