Coming into the game on an 11-game win streak, the Alberta Pandas were all business on this night as they limited chances by the Dinos, capitalized on their own chances, and played a solid game from start to finish. Autumn MacDougall got things started at 3:17 of the first period off goalmouth scramble with Payton Laumbach following up on another scramble around the net at 10:31 to make it 2-0. Regan Wright scored late in the second period at 19:13 with a laser snipe of a wrist shot high on Roberts, and Jaslin Sawatzky scored her first of the season by converting the pass on a 2-on-1 at 13:18 of the third period to round out the scoring.
The Pandas held Calgary sniper Elizabeth Lang to a single shot in the game, with Lang, Delaney Frey, and Sara Craven recording just two shots combined in the game. If the Pandas are going to win the Canada West Conference this season, this game might have been a blueprint for how they're going to accomplish that as they played one of their better road games this season. In the end, Alberta won the game 4-0 over Calgary to jump ahead of the Dinos by six points in the race for the top seed in the conference. Kirsten Chamberlin continues to roll as she stopped all 18 shots she faced for her sixth shutout and ninth win of the season while Kelsey Roberts made 32 stops in the loss.
Highlights of this game are below!
Just as they always do at home, the Pandas started this game like the house was on fire, getting great chances early on only to be denied by Roberts who looked very calm in the Calgary end. Those early saves proved fortuitous as Calgary cracked the tie midway through the period when a scramble around the net saw Osawld stop Rebecca Clarke's backhanded shot in the slot only to have rebound go directly to Chelsea Court who fired it home before Oswald could recover at 10:15 to put the Dinos up 1-0! Both teams would trade chances through the latter half of the period, but the 1-0 score would hold in favor of Calgary despite being outshot 9-4 by the Pandas in the frame.
The second period was more of the same as the top-two teams in Canada West rolled up and down the ice. However, a penalty to the Pandas saw the Dinos take advantage as Merissa Dawson's point shot was stopped by Oswald, but Elizabeth Lang picked up the rebound as she flashed across the top of the crease, tucking the puck past Oswald as she went right to left across the goalmouth to give the Dinos the power-play goal and a 2-0 lead at 7:44! Minutes later, a turnover in the Calgary zone saw Madison Willan get a good chance that Roberts appeared to get a piece of, but the puck ended up behind her where Autumn MacDougall shoveled it home as she crashed the net to make it a 2-1 game at 13:03! The final seven minutes felt like a championship fight as these two heavyweights continued to throw punches, but none would land squarely as the Dinos carried the 2-1 lead into the third period with the Pandas holding a 28-8 margin in shots!
The third period was more of the same as the Pandas pushed for an equalizer, but they continued to come up short thanks to the efforts of Kelsey Roberts and the Dinos defence. Despite outshooting the Dinos in dramatic fashion over the 60 minutes, the only goal scored in the third period came off the stick of Jordyn Burgar who found the empty net in the Alberta zone. When the horn sounded, the Calgary Dinos snapped the 12-game winning streak of the Pandas with a 3-1 victory! Kelsey Roberts added her name to Goalie of the Year conversations with a 36-save performance for her 13th win of the season while Halle Oswald suffered the loss on a nine-save night.
Highlights of this one are below!
Making this Friday game a little more crazy was an 11:30am start time as the Thunderbirds played host to Kids Day at their rink, so the change from a night to morning game on Friday could play a factor as the time change for Saskatchewan would be equivalent to playing at 10:30am! Jessica Vance got the nod for the Huskies while Tory Micklash started for the T-Birds!
It seemed the time change may have affected the Huskies a little as they started the game like they were sleepwalking while UBC came out strong in the early part of the period. A too-many-players penalty to the Huskies cost them early as Mikayla Ogrodniczuk's long point shot through traffic eluded Jessica Vance at 5:14 to put the Thunderbirds up 1-0 on the power-play goal! 51 seconds later, Hannah Clayton-Carroll showed all sorts of skill after skating the puck out of the UBC zone, through the neutral zone, and into the Saskatchewan zone where she cut across the middle while avoiding checks from four different Huskies to go high glove-side past Vance on one of the best individual efforts seen this season in putting UBC up 2-0! That goal seemed to awaken the Huskies as they began to push back on the Thunderbirds, highlighted by the parade to the penalty box in last five minutes of the period. Those penalties would prove costly as Saskatchewan would strike on a 5-on-3 advantage when Emily Upgang fed a wide-open Bailee Bourassa in front of the net, and she buried the power-play goal at 16:09! Through one highly-entertaining period, UBC led 2-1 despite Saskatchewan holding an 8-7 lead in shots.
Saskatchewan would find the equalizer early in the second period off a turnover in the UBC zone when Sophie Lalor walked out of the corner to pick up a puck poked loose by Kennedy Brown, and Lalor would find room high on Micklash on the glove-side to make it a 2-2 game at 2:42! Five-and-a-half minutes later, UBC used a power-play to grab the lead once again when Hannah Koroll's point shot was tipped in front by Clayton-Carroll as Vance could only get a piece of the deflection as it skittered across the line at 8:13 to put UBC back on top by a 3-2 score! The teams would continue to trade chances through the latter half of the period, but that 3-2 score would hold into the intermission for UBC with the teams firing seven shots apiece at the opposing goaltender.
Saskatchewan would use a quick start and a bad bounce to get things rolling in the third period as Lalor's long dump-in to the right corner took a huge bounce off the kick plate that ended up in the slot area, allowing Kennedy Brown whack the puck out of the air and past Micklash at 1:48 to tie the game at 3-3! The teams would settle down and play some solid defence, but Saskatchewan began to turn up the heat on UBC as they found the net with more and more shots as the game progressed. A penalty with five minutes to play didn't result in anything positive for the Huskies as they saw their chance killed off by the T-Birds, but second after the power-play ended, they grabbed their first lead of the game! Leah Bohlken stepped into a blast that caught the top corner on the glove side of Micklash on a shot I don't believe the UBC netminder ever saw based on the traffic in front, and the sniper fire from Bohlken put Saskatchewan up 4-3 with 2:24 to play! Despite some late pressure by the T-Birds with Micklash on the bench, the horn would sound to let the Huskies escape with a 4-3 victory in this one! Jessica Vance stopped 16 shots for her 11th win of the season while Micklash took the loss in a 22-save effort.
Highlights of this game are below!
SATURDAY: A much more normal start time for this game was the highlight prior to the game even starting as the Huskies and Thunderbirds reconvened for the second-half of their weekend set. After a game where pretty goals and weird goals were the norm, would we see a more traditional goaltending duel between these two defensively-minded teams? Camryn Drever was sent out to defend the Huskies' net while Danielle Wierenga got her second Canada West start for UBC on this night!
After giving up the lead in the third period one night earlier, UBC came out with purpose on Saturday, peppering Drever with shots. The only problem? Drever was equal to the task through the opening frame. Nothing got by her, and it looked like we might head into the second period tied if not for a turnover deep in the UBC zone. Abby Shirley knocked the puck off Ireland Perrott's stick and threw a quick, backhanded centering pass out front where Kennedy Brown's backhander got into Wierenga's crease, and it would be Sophie Lalor who would eventually push the puck across the line at 16:33 to give Saskatchewan the 1-0 lead! That score would hold through to the break as UBC trailed despite outshooting the Huskies 15-7 in the frame!
In a rather uneventful second period where both teams flexed their defensive muscles, it would be a pass that changed the scoreboard. Jadeon Cooke's low shot that appeared to be a centering pass for one of either Hannah Clayton-Carroll or Mathea Fischer - both of whom went to the net - found the wickets on Drever as she tried to fend off the crashing Fischer into her crease, and Cooke's shot-pass ended up in the back of the net at 12:18 to tie the game at 1-1! Aside from that, it was a rather highlight-less second period as UBC outshot Saskatchewan 4-2 in the period, but had tied up the game heading into the final stanza!
Saskatchewan used another early goal to jump ahead on the scoreboard as Shyan Elias' shot from the left face-off dot that got through traffic and Wierenga, and seemed to surprise Elias that it went in just 1:02 into the period as the Huskies went up 2-1! Six minutes later, the Huskies showed some good puck movement as Leah Bohlken found Abby Shirley cutting through the high slot area, and Shirley ripped a high shot to the glove side that, again, found its way through all sorts of traffic in front of Wierenga to make it a 3-1 game in favour of Saskatchewan! From there, a parade to the sin bin began for the T-Birds, killing their push to come back in this game. With more than four minutes left in the game, head coach Graham Thomas opted to pull Wierenga, but offsetting minor penalties followed by a minor penalty to UBC ended their push early on this night. At the final horn, the Huskies claimed the 3-1 victory over the Thundrbirds! Camryn Drever picked up her fourth win of the campaign with 27 stops while Danielle Wierenga made 18 saves in the loss.
Highlights are below!
Both teams looked for a spark early on as the game went up and down the ice, but the two netminders stood tall as the clock advanced. However, Lethbridge would break the goose eggs when Brooklyn Palmer broke into the MRU zone, circled away from her check back towards the line, and sent a long wrist shot in along the ice that fooled de Beauville with traffic in front at 9:34 to give the Pronghorns a 1-0 lead. 25 seconds later, it was 2-0 for the Pronghorns when Eryn Johansen made good on her second attempt after de Beauville stopped the first shot in the slot as the Pronghorns were off and running! The Cougars would push back in the second half of this period, but Anderson was good on all attempts as Lethbridge carried the 2-0 lead into the intermission despite being outshot 10-9 by Mount Royal.
The second period saw the goalies come to play once again as they stymied shots from all over the ice. With just over five minutes to play in the period, Nicolette Seper chipped a puck past Brooklyn Palmer to Breanne Trotter and beat Palmer down the ice to be open for pass back from Trotter on the 2-on-1, and Seper used Mattie Apperson as a screen as she fired a shot between Apperson's legs high to the glove side on Anderson who had slid too far at 14:04 to make it a 2-1 game! The final six minutes would tick off the clock, but the Cougars were within one goal at 2-1 despite being outshot 19-15 in the game!
Early in the third period, Tori Williams broke down the left side and circled the Lethbridge net looking for a centering pass. She spotted Trotter who wasn't tied up by Mattie Apperson, and Trotter's quick shot got under Anderson and into the back of the net at 1:43 to tie the game at 2-2! With 18 minutes left in regulation time, would we see a game-winning goal? That answer was yes, and it happened at the midway point of the third period as Lethbridge's Tallon Stephenson picked the pocket of Mount Royal's Daria O'Neill in front of de Beauville and went over the right pad with her shot at 10:39 to put the Pronghorns ahead 3-2! As I foreshadowed two sentences ago, there would be no more goals despite MRU having six attackers on the ice for 89 seconds as the Lethbridge Pronghorns snapped their losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars! Alicia Anderson made 23 saves for her eighth win of the season while Zoe de Beauville also made 23 saves, but in a losing effort.
Highlights of this game are below!
The Cougars must have had the "talk" on the way to Lethbridge from head coach Scott Rivett as they came out in this game like their lives were on the line. Despite their offensive flurry, they couldn't solve Anderson with any shots in the opening period. The other thing that marked this opening period were the repeated visits to the sin bin by both teams as Mount Royal was assessed four minor penalties while Lethbridge was handed three. There was a goal, however, as Kianna Dietz spotted Sage Sansregret out front late in the period, and Sansregret fired the puck home past Shokar at the 15:00 mark to put the Pronghorns up 1-0! The score would carry into the intermission with Mount Royal doubling up Lethbridge 10-5 in shots.
Just 33 seconds into the second period, we had a tie game as a long shot from Mackenzie Butz seemed innocent enough, but it eluded Anderson's glove and found the back of the net to make it 1-1! 7:41 later, the Pronghorns were back up by a goal when Eryn Johansen hit Eva Debaie with a pass in the slot on a partial 2-on-1, and Debaie's backhander found the twine behind Shokar to make it 2-1! We weren't done with the goals there, though, as Mount Royal came right back as Tianna Ko picked up a puck in the neutral zone, turned it up ice on the right wing, turned on the afterburners, and snapped a low shot past Anderson at 10:34 to tie the game at 2-2! Mount Royal's attack didn't let up through the period, but the goals would dry up through the final ten minutes of the frame as the game hit the second break at that 2-2 deadlock, but with Mount Royal leading 21-9 in shots.
The third period saw the two sides play a more even period as chances were seen at both ends, but the goalies stood tall through the first seven minutes. However, we'd see a lamp lit at 7:23 when Tianna Ko hit Breanne Trotter in the neutral zone with a pass, Trotter made a nice move around Kirana Stocker, and broke in alone on Anderson before using the head fake to the left before going right with the forehand and deking around the netminder for the goal, putting Mount Royal up 3-2! 1:54 later, Anna Purschke and Jayden Thorpe broke in on a 2-on-1, and Purschke opted to keep which was a good decision as she snapped a shot past Anderson on the blocker side, and Mount Royal had a 4-2 lead! That would end Anderson's night as Chloe Marshall skatd out in relief, but would that move spark the Pronghorns?
Mount Royal would find itself shorthanded with six-and-a-half minutes remaining, and the Pronghorns took advantage on the power-play. Kyra Grieg's shot off the left half-boards hit a player in front and ricocheted to Mila Verbicky who fired the puck past Shokar before she could reset, and the Pronghorns pulled within a goal at 4-3 at 13:50! The Pronghorns would pull Marshall late in the game for the extra attacker, but they'd find no other goals as the Mount Royal Cougars grabbed the 4-3 victory over the Lethbridge Pronghorns! Cassie Shokar picked up her fifth win with a 15-save performance while Alicia Anderson suffered the loss in making 24 stops in 49:17 of action. For the record, Chloe Marshall stopped all four shot she faced in the 10:43 of action she played.
Highlights of this game are below!
It didn't help Manitoba's cause early in this game when a turnover ended up in the back of the Bisons' net after Elise Endicott stripped a Manitoba defender of the puck behind the net, stepped out front, and backhanded it past Schubert at 2:33 for the 1-0 lead. 3:20 later, Regina found itself on the power-play when Paige Hubbard's shot from a sharp angle was stopped by Schubert, but the she couldn't squeeze the puck until the whistle and it popped out behind her into the net for the power-play goal and the 2-0 Regina lead! Manitoba stepped up its game after a fairly terrible opening five minutes, but Kish was good in her crease as the period would end with the two-goal Regina lead intact and the teams tied 7-7 in shots.
The second period saw the two teams with chances at both ends, but both netminders were equal to those tasks. Schubert, after a rough opening sequence in the first period, seemed to rebound well with a couple of big saves in the second period to keep her team in the game. Kish, at the other end, continued her stellar play as she denied the Bisons on a couple of great opportunities, and we'd head to the second break with Regina still leading 2-0, and ahead in shots by a 15-13 count.
The third period saw the even play between these two teams continue, but the defence on either end tightened up slightly as both sides looked to counter-attack with their transition games. As time ticked down, Schubert went to the bench for the extra attacker, but a turnover at the Manitoba blue line to Jaycee Magwood saw Magwood feed Endicott for her second goal of the game into the yawning cage with 3:00 to play, and the Regina Cougars secired their third-straight shutout of the Manitoba Bisons by a 3-0 score. Jane Kish earned her seventh shutout of the season - three against the Bisons in three games! - and 12th win of the campaign with her 18-save blanking of Manitoba while Amanda Schubert was assessed the loss after her 16-save performance.
Highlights of this game are below!
SATURDAY: A loss today by the Bisons would virtually seal their fate in missing the playoffs, so this game was as close to a "must win" game as possible for the Herd. Regina, meanwhile, was looking to keep pace with the teams ahead of them, so they too were looking to add points to their standing. Erin Fargey was in net for the Bisons in this game while Jane Kish looked to shutout the Bisons in the season series between the two teams.
Manitoba didn't seem to have the jump one would expect in playing a must-win game, but it didn't seem to matter after they jumped ahead in this game. Jordyn Zacharias threw a pass across to Kate Gregoire on the right side, and then blew by Kaitlyn Crowe up the middle to turn the rush into a 2-on-1. Gregoire returned the puck to the streaking Zacharias, and she went high blocker-side to snap the shutout streak of Kish against the Bisons at 185:27 and, more importantly, put the Bisons up 1-0 in this game! Regina, after that goal, carried the play for the remainder of the frame, getting chances on Fargey only to be denied by the Manitoba goalie. Through one period, the 1-0 lead would hold for the Bisons, but the Cougars were well out in front in shots at 9-2.
Manitoba employed an non-recommended strategy to start the second period as they took three-straight minor penalties, and the third penalty would come back to haunt them. Jaycee Magwood loaded up the cannon from the blue line that Fargey would withstand, but the rebound bounced down in front where Shaelyn Vallotton whacked home the loose puck at 5:47 to tie the game at 1-1! Manitoba would regain their lead six minutes later when Kish got all turned around in her crease in trying to find a loose puck that ricocheted high off the glass behind her, and, after eight players converged around Kish to battle for the puck in what looked more like a rugby scrum, it would be Kate Gregoire who finally found the puck and buried it at 11:39 to put Manitoba up 2-1! Regina would push back over the last eight minutes of play in the second period, but the one-goal lead would hold for the Bisons despite being on the wrong side of a 21-8 shot total.
The third period saw Regina push for an equalizer, but Fargey wasn't having any of it in this frame. Chances were had, and chances were turned aside by the Bisons goaltender. It looked like Regina was going to opt for the extra attacker late, but a penalty would eliminate any advantage as Manitoba, despite being outshot heavily, survived this game with a 2-1 victory over the Regina Cougars! Erin Fargey was on her game as she stopped 29 shots for her fifth win of the season while Jane Kish suffered her first loss in 2020 on a ten-save night.
Highlights of this game are below!
| School | Record | Points | GF | GA | Streak | Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | 16-7-1-0 | 50 | 70 | 27 | L1 | @ REG |
| Saskatchewan | 13-6-2-3 | 46 | 45 | 34 | W6 | vs MAN |
| Calgary | 14-7-1-2 | 46 | 49 | 37 | W1 | @ MRU |
| Regina | 9-11-4-0 | 35 | 43 | 45 | L1 | vs ALB |
| Mount Royal | 10-13-1-0 | 32 | 36 | 38 | W1 | vs CAL |
| British Columbia | 8-11-1-4 | 30 | 36 | 51 | L2 | vs LET |
| Lethbridge | 7-13-1-3 | 26 | 42 | 65 | L1 | @ UBC |
| Manitoba | 6-15-2-1 | 23 | 25 | 47 | L1 | @ REG |
The Last Word
There are 12 points left on the board over the final four games of the season. While no team is mathematically-eliminated at this point, the playoff picture seems to be pretty clear for three teams who have clinched playoff spots - they're in. Who finishes where is still up for grabs, but there's definitely three teams in the clear at this point. That leaves five teams to determine where they finish, but we'll focus exclusively on the three teams battling for the final playoff spot.Based on the schedules remaining, here are how each of those three teams will finish the season:
- UBC - vs Lethbridge, vs Mount Royal.
- Lethbridge - at UBC, home-and-home with Calgary.
- Manitoba - at Saskatchewan, vs Alberta.
Lethbridge, who trails UBC by four points, needs to win both games against the Thunderbirds this weekend to have a shot at the playoffs. A split makes it more difficult as Lethbridge would need Mount Royal to defeat UBC twice on the final weekend while winning both. Two points or less against the T-Birds this weekend will end the dream of the playoffs this year for Lethbridge.
UBC can eliminate both Lethbridge and Manitoba, and claim one of the Canada West playoff spots, with two regulation wins. Simple, straightforward, six points.
Next week, the playoff picture should become much clearer as we'll likely know the six teams who are in, who is not, and what those six teams need to do in the final weekend to slot into one of the six positions for the playoffs. We'll break everything down at that time for the playoff invitees, so make sure you check back in following the games this week!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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