CALGARY – The University of Alberta Pandas secured a 3-2 win over the Dinos women's hockey team Saturday evening to split the season series. The Dinos made a furious comeback effort, scoring two goals with a pulled goalie in the third period but would fall just short in the end.  

"There were lots of different phases in this game," Dinos head coach Carla MacLeod said. "If you break it down, the Pandas came out ready to go and put us on our heels a bit, I thought our response after that was pretty good. I thought we were resilient and I thought we were relentless. We played eight minutes without a goalie and scored two goals, so there's a lot of positive there to build off of."

After Friday's 2-1 win for the Dinos in Edmonton, the Pandas came out strong in the rematch, scoring the first three goals of the game. Jadynn Morden started off the scoring from a quick pass from Danica Namaka. Namaka led on Mordan as she headed for the net across the blue line and took a shot at the Dinos net, placing it in the top right corner. 

The Pandas then doubled their lead with just seconds remaining before the first intermission. Madison Willan won a faceoff in the Dinos zone and got the puck to Natalie Kieser, who rifled a powerful shot from the top of the ice to find the back of the net with just six seconds left in the first to make it 2-0.

The score stayed that way until a frenzied third period. Taylor Kezama made it a three-goal lead for Alberta with her third goal of the season just over two minutes into the period.

The Dinos then chose to pull their goalie and add an extra attacked with nearly nine minutes left in the game, with the strategy working to the tune of two goals for suddenly dramatic finish.

Alli Borrow got the first goal for the Dinos, securing her team-leading eighth of the season with just 2:19 left in the game. Borrow collected the puck deep in the zone and wristed one on frame and it snuck in near post to get the Dinos on the board.

Just over one minute later, Jolie Nafziger and Jada Leung battled the Pandas in the corners before getting a pass to Rebecca Clarke, who got the Dinos second goal of the game with 1:05 remaining.

That would prove to be it, however, as the comeback effort ran out of time and the final horn sounded. 

Halle Oswald finished with 27 saves - including 11 in the final frame - in the win for the Pandas. Gabriella Durante tallied 23 saves in 52 minutes off ice time for Calgary.

Up next, the Dinos will face off against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies next weekend at home, starting Friday at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, the Pandas will take on their city rivals in a home-and-home series with MacEwan next weekend.

-UC-