CALGARY – After working all season to secure home-ice advantage, the No. 2-ranked Dinos host archrival Alberta in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series this weekend.
 
At stake is not only a place in the conference final series next week, but a berth to the CIS championship at the University of Toronto, March 8-10.
 
Both Game 1 and Game 2 will see the Dinos and the Pandas go at it at 7 p.m. Should a third game be needed to decide a winner, game time is set for 4 p.m.
 
Calgary was an offensive juggernaut this season, averaging nearly 3.5 goals per game while giving up a conference-low 46 tallies in 28 games.
 
The Dinos feature five of the top 10 scorers in the league, led by Hayley Wickenheiser's 43-point season, while Amanda Tapp posted a miniscule 1.53 goals-against-average between the pipes for Calgary this year.
 
Three other forwards in Calgary's lineup that make the Top Ten in scoring in Canada West include Jenna Smith, coming in at No. 3, Iya Gavrilova, who sits second on the goal leaders list with 13 goals, and captain Tanya Morgan who recorded six points in her last regular season game for the Dinos. Defenceman Stephanie Ramsay is also a standout, holding ninth place with 11 goals and 14 assists.
 
For the Pandas, goaltender Michala Jeffries ranks third, behind Tapp and UBC goalie Danielle Dube, with a 1.83 goals against average and a save percentage of .924.
 
After posting a program-record 23-4-1 mark in the regular season, the Dinos finished first in the conference by an eight-point margin over second-place Regina. Friday night's Game 1 will be the first action for Calgary in exactly two weeks after they wrapped up conference play Feb. 7-8 by sweeping the Crowchild Classic series against the Mount Royal Cougars.
 
Alberta, on the other hand, needed the full three games to get past the pesky Saskatchewan Huskies in a quarterfinal series this weekend. After the Pandas took the first game 3-2 on home ice, the Huskies got revenge in Game 2, forcing the series to head into a third game on Sunday with a 3-1 win. Alberta was ready on the final day of the weekend, advancing to the semifinals with a decisive 4-1 win over Saskatchewan.
 
The Dinos won the season series 3-1 over the Pandas, with the only loss coming by a 4-2 score at home, way back on Nov. 2. They swept them 4-2 and 2-1 on the road late in January.
 
Calgary and Alberta met in last year's Canada West championship series, with the Dinos clinching their first conference title with a 2-0 victory.
 
The Regina Cougars host the UBC Thunderbirds in the other conference semifinal. The Cougars split with the T-Birds in the first match-up of the season, but would later sweep UBC at the beginning of December.
 
For the Dinos, the chance to defend their 2012 national championship comes down to winning two games on home ice. A Calgary victory would bring the conference championship series to Southern Alberta for the second straight season as well.