BOX SCORE REGINA – Jenna Smith's hat trick led the Calgary Dinos to a 5-1 victory over the Regina Cougars on Friday night at The Co-operators Centre in a game featuring the top two teams in the Canada West women's hockey standings.
 
Megan Grenon and Erin Davidson also scored for Calgary, while Amanda Tapp stopped 22 of 23 shots between the pipes for the Dinos to help secure the win. Rookie defenceman Alexis Larson scored the U of R's lone goal with a power play marker in the third.
 
The win improves No. 2-ranked Calgary's Canada West record to 15-3-1 as the Dinos pull five points ahead of the second-place Cougars (13-6-0) in the conference standings.
 
Grenon opened the scoring for Calgary just shy of the nine-minute mark of the first period after taking a feed from Hayley Wickenheiser and beating Cougar starting goalie Jennifer Schmidt. Wickenheiser also got in on Calgary's second goal just three minutes later, feeding Smith for her first of the game.
 
Smith scored again for Calgary on her next shift, with Sarah Astle and Melissa Zubick drawing assists on a goal which chased Schmidt from the game in favour of U of R backup netminder Toni Ross. Despite the 3-0 deficit, the Cougars actually held a 9-8 shot advantage through 20 minutes.
 
Neither team was able to score in the second period, and Larson finally got the goose egg off the board eight and a half minutes into the third after whistling a shot past Tapp to get the Cougars to within two.
 
But that was as close as the Cougars were able to come, as Davidson scored less than two minutes after Larson's goal to restore the three-goal cushion and Smith's hat trick goal put the game away with two minutes left in the contest. Smith's third of the night also gave her 10 for the season, as the third-year forward is now one of just three Canada West players in double digits in goals.
 
Ross stopped 16 of Calgary's 18 shots in relief for the Cougars, who were 1-for-6 with the power play in the loss. The Dinos were 1-for-4 with the man advantage in the win, with Smith's final goal coming with Regina's Hillary Lerat serving a holding minor.
 
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night at The Co-operators Centre. Puck drop is again scheduled for 6 p.m. MT.
 
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