EDMONTON – The University of Calgary Dinos ensured they would head into the Canada West playoffs as the hottest team in the nation, earning their 13th consecutive victory with a 3-0 blanking of the University of Alberta Pandas Sunday at Foote Field.
The Dinos finish the regular season at 13-1, with the lone loss coming in the first game of the campaign to these same Pandas. After that, Calgary went on an absolute tear, winning their last 13 games of the year by a combined score of 32-3, with
Lauren Houghton setting new Canada West single-season records with 11 shutouts and 13 victories on the year.
"It was a great day," said Dinos Head Coach Troye Flannery. "I don't think it was our best effort of the season, but in the end it turned out to be a great day. That was a fired-up Alberta team, very difficult to play against. I thought the ladies in white today battled hard.
"This is a very difficult league, and to finish first in Canada West...it doesn't matter once Monday rolls around as we get into the playoffs, but right now we'll celebrate these successes. It's going to be a fun bus ride home."
Calgary, owning the best record in the conference, will host a first-round mini-tournament to open the playoffs next weekend at McMahon Stadium. Friday will see the Saskatchewan Huskies take on the Victoria Vikes, with the winner of that to take on the Dinos Sunday. Both games will kick off at 12 p.m.
Sunday, it was
Maddison Fritze doing it all offensively for the Dinos, scoring twice and adding an assist. Fritze finishes the season with nine goals, one back of the conference lead.
Fritze opened the scoring just two minutes into the match, beating Pandas starter Rebecca Reif for her eighth goal of the season.
That scoreline held until the 81st, as Fritze doubled the Dinos lead with her ninth, taking a feed from
Kayla Kreutzer and burying a shot from outside the area. Then, in the 89th,
Jordan Smith sealed the Calgary win as Fritze fed her a nifty cross on a partial break to make it 3-0 Calgary.
Alberta finishes second in the Prairie Division and will host the winner of a Regina-MacEwan play-in game in their quarter-final round next week. The four quarter-final winners will advance to the Canada West Final Four at the Pacific Division champion Nov. 2-4.
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