CALGARY – The Cinderella story of the University of Calgary Dinos women's hockey team continues this weekend as they hit the playoff trail for a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series against the Regina Cougars.

Game 1 goes Friday night at 6 p.m. MT, with Game 2 also at 6 p.m. MT Saturday. If necessary, Game 3 will be Sunday night, also at 6 p.m. MT. All games will be streamed live from the Co-Operators Centre in Regina on CanadaWest.tv.

The Dinos went in a miracle run to close out the regular season and claim the final playoff spot. At the midway point of the campaign, Calgary was 10 points out of the playoffs with a record of 2-8-4. They won 10 of their last 14 games, highlighted by sweeps of Saskatchewan and Mount Royal, and booked their ticket to the playoffs with a two-game regulation sweep of the Lethbridge Pronghorns last weekend. The result lifted the Dinos over Mount Royal and Lethbridge into the final playoff spot.

As hosts of the CIS championship March 17-20 at the Markin MacPhail Centre, the Dinos already have a spot at the national championship; now, they'll look to make some noise in the conference playoffs against the Cougars.

The Cougars won the season series against the Dinos, taking three of the four matchups. Regina opened the regular season with 4-3 and 7-0 home wins over Calgary in October, before winning 4-3 then falling 3-0 at Calgary in early January. Calgary allowed the most goals of any team in Canada West this season, surrendering 81 goals - but 54 of those were in the first half of the season, meaning the Dinos cut their goals-against fully in half from the midway point of the year.

Regina has the number three and four scorers in Canada West in Kylie Gavelin and rookie Jaycee Magwood. Gavelin tallied 11 goals and 16 assists in 26 games, while Magwood put up 11 goals and 15 helpers in the full 28 games. Emma Waldenberger was also a threat offensively, finishing third in the conference in goals scored with 13. Five of Waldenberger's 13 markers came in the first weekend series against the Dinos.

Regina will have to slow down the nation's top two scorers, as Iya Gavrilova piled up 20 goals and 23 assists in 28 games this season. The fifth-year forward out of Krasnoyarsk, Russia is followed immediately by fellow Russian Sasha Vafina in the CIS scoring race. Vafina, a third-year athlete from Chelyabinsk, finished with 14 goals and 20 helpers on the year. In the four games against the Cougars this season, the duo combined for four goals and six assists. Also bolstering the Dinos attack is Delaney Frey (5 G, 8 A), Stephanie Zvonkovic (4 G, 8 A) and Chelsea Court (7 G, 3 A).

Toni Ross finished with a CIS-leading 17 wins in net for the Cougars, which is the fourth-highest single season total in Canada West history. Ross also finished second in the conference in save percentage at .929 and sported a goals-against average of 1.93. The fifth-year goaltender's 1493:22 minutes of ice time this season is the second-highest total in the nation.

Hayley Dowling made 18 appearances in net for Calgary and Sarah Murray saw action in 11 games. Dowling had a save percentage of .915 and a goals-against average of 2.30 while Murray hit marks of .885 and 3.08.

The Cougars and Dinos have only one previous playoff meeting, back on Feb. 11, 2000 when the Dinos won 3-2 in a single-game Canada West semifinal.

NOTE: Saskatchewan will host Manitoba in the other quarterfinal series while Alberta and UBC earned byes to the semifinal and await the winners.

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