EDMONTON – Sydney Mercier potted a pair of goals to lead the University of Calgary Dinos women's hockey team to a 2-1 victory over the MacEwan Griffins on Thursday night at the Downtown Community Arena.

A dramatic momentum swing late in the first period was ultimately the difference in a tight contest. The Griffins thought they had scored to tie the game 1-1 during a wild net-front scramble with 1:25 left in the opening frame when Karington Mollin's shot went off the post, off the goalie, and was dribbling over the line before Amelia Awad covered it with her glove.

The momentum swing was cruel to the home team, as Calgary went down and scored what would stand as the game-winner 42 seconds later.

The Dinos improved to 6-3-0 with the win, while MacEwan dropped to 1-7-1.

Mercier scored both of her goals in the opening period, the first coming off a gorgeous play where she created a breakaway from the blueline with her speed and deked out Lindsey Johnson, going bar down. It was in and out so quickly that it almost looked like it hit the crossbar.

Mercier was also the author of the 2-0 goal, chipping in a beautiful backdoor pass from Eden Carius with 43 seconds left in the first.

A two-goal deficit for MacEwan wasn't really deserved, as they came out forechecking hard and had several first-period shifts in the offensive zone but couldn't get anything to go.

The Griffins finally hit the scoresheet with 12:14 left in the contest, as Jordan Brown's power-play point shot was tipped by Megan Dolynchuk on Awad before she buried the rebound.

Rian Santos had a golden chance to tie it with a hot shot from the slot with 5:30 left, but Awad made a fantastic blocker-side save with her stick shaft.

Awad finished with 21 saves for Calgary, while Johnson had 25 stops for MacEwan.

The teams will meet again Friday night in Calgary, with puck drop set for 6 p.m. at Father David Bauer Arena.