CALGARY – A late third period tally from Jess Martens and a two-goal night from Dinos captain Brooklyn Anderson, including the overtime game winner, led the University of Calgary women's hockey team to a 4-3 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars Saturday night at Father David Bauer Arena.

The Dinos overcame an early two-goal deficit for the comeback win and now move to 15-5-4 on the year with 34 points and four games still to go. Meanwhile, MRU is four points ahead of Calgary at 18-6-2 for 38 points with just two games left on its schedule.

"It was definitely not the start we wanted and we chatted about it," said Anderson. "We recognized the situation and flipped the mindset and came out better in the second and built off of that.

"Given the situation, we wanted to treat it like it's playoffs, so we're all playing a little bit more desperate and I just had that mindset today."

In contrast to Thursday's battle at the Scotiabank Saddledome, it was the Cougars who struck first in the Crowchild Classic rematch. A reaching Kaia Borbandy tipped the puck from the left circle towards the centre lane where Gabby Lindsay made no mistake, quickly popping it over the left shoulder of Dinos goaltender Amelia Awad at the 14-minute mark, giving the Cougars a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

A two-on-one situation early in the second period had Mount Royal crashing Calgary's zone where Julia Duke took a shot on Awad. Awad initially made the save, but after a conversation between the officials, a goal was awarded to the visitors to put them up 2-0 just 2:20 into the frame.

"We took a breath," said Dinos head coach Josh Gosling. "At the end of the day, we knew we were in a good spot. We have a lot of confidence in that group, so we took a breath. We didn't love the first period, and we knew we could get better."

Less than two minutes after MRU's second goal, the Dinos started their fight back. A pass from the goal line up to Bree Kennedy saw a shot on Cougars netminder Scout Anderson, with both Dinos and Cougars alike scrambling for the rebound before it was found by Solana Cooper, who backhanded it right by the right pad and into the back of the net, reducing the Cougars' lead to 2-1.

It was then Cooper yet again who saw Brooklyn Anderson flying down centre ice before launching the puck to her tape, creating a breakaway with Mount Royal's defence trailing. A quick release from Anderson had the puck soaring over the goalie's glove side in the top corner, lighting the lamp for the Dinos' second of the night and tying the game at 2-2 to close out the second period.

A goal-a-piece for each team came in the final frame in regulation time. Allee Gerard put one past Awad at 12:56 to give the Cougars the 3-2 lead before Jess Martens knocked one off the visiting defenders to tie the game yet again with less than three minutes remaining in regulation time, resulting in the match being sent it to extra time.

After two early big saves from Awad, it was at the three-minute mark when the Dinos captain notched her second of the night. A pass from behind the net from Evelyn Lawrence found the stick of Brooklyn Anderson who had no problems firing it into the Cougars' net, finalizing a 4-3 win and a weekend sweep against the cross-town rivals.

"For the weekend in general, I don't think we loved our consistency," Gosling said. "I don't think we loved our full game, but I was really happy with our desperation and really happy with the character side of grinding it out.

"You look at Thursday, the desperation of blocking shots was there. Today, the energy on the bench and the desperation in terms of getting back into the game and pulling it out at the end."

Next up, the Dinos will host the Saskatchewan Huskies at Father David Bauer Arena on Feb. 6 and 7 as they continue their push for the playoffs, with Saturday's game serving as Senior Day.

"I don't think it'll be any different than how we prepared for this weekend," said Brooklyn Anderson. "We know we have to come out and play our game first shift. Nothing really changes. We stick to our game and the process will come."

"Day by day," said Gosling. "We're going to take what we learned out of this weekend, we're going to keep focusing on playoff hockey and playing the right way, and we're going to go day by day."

The Mount Royal Cougars will head into a bye week before travelling to Saskatchewan to face off against the Huskies on Feb. 13 and 14 to close out the regular season.

-UC-