CALGARY – With another classic performance,
Kelsey Roberts led her University of Calgary Dinos to a 4-1 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars Thursday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
In front of 10,002 fans at the eighth annual Crowchild Classic – the largest audience to witness a U SPORTS women's hockey game in history – Roberts stopped 20 of the 21 shots she faced to earn first star honours at the Saddledome for the third straight year as the Dinos improved their record to 6-2 in the NHL arena.
Rebecca Clarke,
Elizabeth Lang and
Brooke Dennett scored for the Dinos, with Nicolette Seper scoreing the lone goal for the Cougars. Cassie Shokar made nine saves on just 12 shots against in the Mount Royal cage.
Just 3:23 into the contest, Clarke gave the Dinos an early lead with her third, a wrist shot over the shoulder of Shokar.
Taylor Beck had an excellent chance in the final minutes to increase the Dinos lead on a backdoor chance but the puck slid just wide of the net and the sprawled Shokar as the Dinos led 1-0 after 20.
Despite having penalty troubles, the Dinos were the first ones to draw blood in the second period. Lang gave the Dinos a 2-0 lead 13:29 in. The Dinos picked up the puck on a failed clearing attempt, and Sarah Craven made a nifty feed to Lang who was left alone in front, and the Dinos' leading scorer tucked it between the post and the pad.
Mount Royal pulled within one with under two minutes remaining as Seper took a pass from Cassidy Trotter off another blocked clearing attempt and fired a shot past Roberts.
The Dinos were heavily out shot, but held on for the win, with Dennett giving Calgary a much-needed insurance goal late in the third. She would add empty netter to put the game away.
"I had a couple one-on-one opportunities earlier in the game, I got the pass and it was me one-on one and I knew I needed to make a move, I cut across the ice and shot far blocker," said Dennett. "We're feeling good heading into tomorrow – we definitely need to clean some things up in our defensive zone, support our defence better and support Kelsey [Roberts] better, win our battles."
Calgary improves to 16-7-1 with the win, while Mount Royal falls to 11-14-1 with each team having three games left on the season. The first of those is a rematch, with a 7 p.m. puck drop between the crosstown rivals Friday night at Flames Community Arenas.
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