The Rundown - Week 11

On a weekend that supposed to feature no games, we ended turning the conference break into a four-game weekend as two series were moved to this weekend. Both series have playoff-position implications, so these were vitally important games to three of the four teams while the fourth team was looking to play spoiler and ruin their opposition's playoff hopes and dreams. Again, with five teams watching from home, this recap is shorter than most, but it will set up an exciting February of hockey in Canada West. If you're a fan of playoff races, this weekend's series is exactly what you're looking for as we go over everything that happened on The Rundown!

FRIDAY: We'll start in Winnipeg where the Trinity Western Spartans met the Manitoba Bisons in their first-ever regular season series. With six games remaining on the schedule for both teams, points were valuable this weekend as TWU looked to keep their faint playoff hopes alive while Manitoba was looking to move past UBC with whom they were tied in the standings, overtake Saskatchewan for second-place once more, and claim second as their own for at least a week. In other words, these games had importance to both teams! Mabel Maltais was in the blue paint for Trinity Western while Kimmy Davidson earned the start for Manitoba!

Once again, this article will not celebrate blowouts in any way, so this is your foreshadowing of what's to come. I should also note that TWU played with 18 players rather than the standard 20 players. As for the action, Katie Chatyrbok scored her first goal of the season at 8:47 to put Manitoba up 1-0, and Halle Edwards would score with 49 seconds to play in the period to make it 2-0 for Manitoba. Manitoba held a 13-9 edge in shots as we move to the second period.

TWU ran into penalty problems in the middle frame, and it resulted in four power-play goals. Kate Gregoire scored her third of the season at 4:30. Ashley Keller chipped her sixth of the season in at 5:48. Hanna Bailey scored her first Canada West goal at 11:37, and Halle Edwards added her seventh goal in this campaign to make it 6-0. Again, all four goals were scored on the power-play for Manitoba, so special teams played a serious factor in the second period. Manitoba led 24-18 in shots.

After Kate Fawcett replaced Mabel Maltais in the Trinity Western crease to start the period, Trechelle Bunn would round out the scoring just 61 seconds into the frame as the Bisons skated to the 7-0 victory over the Trinity Western Spartans in their first-ever regular-season game. Kimmy Davidson earned her fourth win and second shutout of the season after stopping 28 of 28 shots while Mable Maltais suffered the loss after stopping 18 shots in her 40 minutes of work. For the record, Mabel Maltais stopped four of five shots she faced in her 20 minutes of work.

The Bisons are on the scene with highlights!

SATURDAY: After the lopsided score one night before, it was expected that the Spartans were going to do everything they could to erase those memories. The Bisons were looking to add two more points to their season total, though, so they were going to be hungry as well. Kate Fawcett started this game for Trinity Western while Erin Fargey was in the crease for the Bisons!

Both teams were a little more aggressive in looking for scoring chances early in this game, but it would Manitoba who would find the back of the net first. Madi Cole went bar-down with a laser beam of a wrist shot from the slot for her second goal of the season at 11:42, and the Bisons were up just past the midway point of the period. The Bisons would double their lead when Camryn Gillis led a two-on-one down the ice and fed Kate Gregoire who tucked her fourth goal between the wickets of Fawcett at 15:07. 2:57 later, it became a 3-0 lead when Molly Kunnas' shot ricocheted off a defender in front of Fawcett and got through the netminder for the power-play goal! At the first stoppage, the Bisons held a three-goal lead and a 10-7 edge in shots!

The second period saw Trinity Western play some solid five-on-five hockey as they countered the Bisons' attacks with good stickchecks and a concerted defensive effort. While they looked for opportunities in the Manitoba end, the Bisons were blocking shots and getting into lanes as well. A scoreless second period led to the third period with Manitoba still up 3-0 with an 18-12 lead in shots.

The third period saw Manitoba push for another insurance marker only to be denied once again by Fawcett and the TWU defenders. Trinity Western would press as the period neared the end, but they werte unable to solve Fargey. When the final horn sounded, the Manitoba Bisons recorded their second-straight blanking as they downed the Spartans by a 3-0 score! Erin Fargey earned her sixth victory and second shutout of the season by being perfect on all 21 shots while Kate Fawcett was on the losing end of a 27-save effort.

The Bisons go two-for-two on highlight packages!

FRIDAY: It was good to see UBC finally make it to Calgary for their series against the Dinos with a full complement of players. Calgary, however, came into the weekend with just 14 skaters and two netminders dressed for Friday's game. UBC was looking to reclaim their second-place spot behind Mount Royal while Calgary was looking to break the three-way tie for sixth-place in the conference. Would the shorthanded bench affect the Dinos in this game? Elise Hugens was in the net for the Thunderbirds while Gabriella Durante was between the pipes for the Dinos!

The first period was pretty even in terms of how it was played between these two squads. Rylind MacKinnon would put the UBC Thunderbirds on the board first, however, as she made a nice move to evade the stickcheck of Kate Wagner in the slot before wiring a shot high on the blocker side of Durante that found twine for her eighth goal of the season, and UBC was out in front 1-0 at the 6:13 mark. Calgary would tie the game up with seven minutes remaining in the period when Holly Reuther whacked home a rebound on a goalmouth scramble for her eighth of the season at 12:23, and we'd head into the break with a 1-1 score and Calgary holding a 9-8 edge in shots.

The second period saw all sorts of intrigue as the Dinos had a goal disallowed midway through the frame, but both teams had chances through out the frame. UBC would break the deadlock late in the frame when Chanreet Bassi's shot somehow got past Durante for her sixth of the season at 18:12 for the 2-1 T-Birds lead. However, just 28 seconds later, Holly Reuther's initial shot was blocked in the slot, but Rachel Paul found the loose puck and buried it past Hugens for her sixth of the campaign to tie the game at 2-2, and we'd head to the third period to find a winner with Calgary still holding the slight edge in shots at 15-14.

The third period saw UBC use an early power-play to regain the lead. Hanna Koroll's wrist shot from the point found room through traffic and dented twine on Durante's blocker side for her third of the season, and the power-play goal at 4:54 put UBC in front by a 3-2 score! Calgary would up their efforts as they looked to even the game for the third time on the night, but Hugens and the UBC defence were stout down the stretch as they preserved the 3-2 score and the victory for the Thunderbirds over the Dinos! Elise Hugens earned her eighth win of the season with a 22-save effort while Gabriella Durante stopped 17 shots in the loss.

We have highlights for this game as well!

SATURDAY: The storylines were the same for Saturday's game as UBC looked to jump into second-place while Calgary looked to break that three-team tie for sixth-place. UBC would skate with 20 again while Calgary was still sporting 14 skaters and two goalies. Calgary have a heckuvan effort the night before with 16, but could they change the ending to this game? Elise Hugens was back in the paint for the T-Birds while Durante got the start again for the Dinos!

Calgary seemed to have their legs under them as this game got going, and Taylor Beck would use that momentum to pick up a puck in the offensive zone following a face-off win and wire a high shot glove-side on Hugens for her second goal of the season to put the Dinos out in front 1-0 at the 5:32 mark! UBC would find some life after that goal as they began to pepper the Calgary net with shot, but Durante stood tall as the Dinos tooke the one-goal lead into the break despite being outshot 10-7.

The second period was all about special teams as they were special for the Dinos. Emily Hill's shot from the point went through the screen in front of Hugens for her third of the season, and the power-play goal put the Dinos up 2-0 at 7:03. The Dinos would be back on the power-play 1:15 later when Holly Reuther streaked down the wing, cut to the middle, and unleashed a high wrister that Hugens missed to make it a 3-0 game on Ruether's ninth tally of the season.

UBC head coach Graham Thomas opted to swap his netminders at this point as Reese Hiddleston made her way to the UBC goal, but Calgary was feeling the momentum in their favour. 40 seconds after the goalie change, a turnover in the UBC end allowed Jessica Martens to center the puck from behind the net, and Ashley Sutherland hammered home her first Canada West goal to make it a 4-0 game on the first shot Hiddleston faced. The Calgary power-play was back at it 4:10 later when Rachel Paul's initial shot was kicked out into the slot by Hiddleston, and Alli Borrow buried the rebound for her eighth goal of the season to put Calgary up 5-0 at 13:10. That score would hold into the second break as the four-goal second period did some serious damage as Clagary scored four goals on nine shots in the frame.

Elise Hugens was back in the UBC net following the intermission, and she would put a stop to the Calgary scoring. The only problem was that Durante was just as good at the other end of the ice, and the final horn would sound on a 5-0 victory for the Calgary Dinos over the UBC Thunderbirds! Gabriella Durante was sharp in picking up her seventh win and second shutout of the season on a 25-save night while Elise Hugens suffered the loss after stopping 20 of 23 shots in her 48:18 of work. Reese Hiddleston, for the record, stopped one shot on three attempts in her 11:42 of relief work.

Highlights of this game are below! As an aside, thank you to both Manitoba and Calgary for producing highlight packages - this is exactly what I like seeing, and both schools deserve a little kudos for the effort. Thank you!

CANADA WEST WOMEN'S HOCKEY

School	Record	Points	GF	GA	Streak	Next
Mount Royal	10-1-1-2	24	43	16	W4	@ UBC
Manitoba	9-5-2-0	22	44	28	W2	@ REG
UBC	10-4-0-0	20	52	25	L1	vs MRU
Saskatchewan	8-5-1-2	20	35	20	W3	vs MAC
Alberta	4-5-3-2	16	29	26	L2	vs TWU
Calgary	7-9-0-0	14	42	46	W1	BYE
MacEwan	6-8-0-0	12	18	36	W1	@ SAS
Regina	5-9-0-2	12	27	43	L3	vs MAN
Trinity Western	1-14-1-0	4	16	66	L8	@ ALB

**teams in yellow and italics have clinched a playoff spot**

Very Interesting Ending

Looking at the "Next" above, indicating who plays whom next weekend, there are some intriguing series that will happen. Obviously, the Mount Royal-UBC series will be the one to watch as UBC legitimately could upset Mount Royal's push to have home-ice advantage throughout the Canada West playoffs. UBC is still aiming for a top-two finish as well, so beating Mount Royal and winning the tie-breaker between those two teams would help them immensely if they were to find themselves tied in the standings.

Manitoba, who is 1-1 versus Regina this season, will travel to the Queen's city to renew that rivalry. Regina needs to win games to compete for a playoff spot, but Manitoba may have a shot at first-place in the conference depending on the MRU-UBC results. Manitoba could put a lot of pressure on Saskatchewan in that last weekend in their hunt for playoff positioning with a pair of wins over the Cougars, so this will be a big weekend for Manitoba once again as they have a shot at making things interesting for a numvber of teams including themselves.

Saskatchewan will face a tough MacEwan team who also needs wins to remain in the playoff hunt. MacEwan has to find a pile of wins in their remaining six games to overcome Calgary, who holds the tie-breaker over MacEwan, if they hope to play in the postseason. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, could also make things very interesting at the top of the table with a pair of wins as they'll also put a ton of pressure on the other three teams sitting above them. Needless to say, these two teams will be hunting for wins this weekend.

Alberta, who plays at home against Trinity Western, is looking to add its name to the top-four conversation which would mean they'd host a playoff game at Clare Drake Arena. Alberta plays very tough at home, so there will be a few teams who'd like to avoid starting their playoff run at that arena. Trinity Western, meanwhile, can spoil Alberta's dreams pretty quickly if they can post a win or two against the Pandas.

Every week will be about scoreboard watching from here as the playoff storylines will evolve depending upon wins and losses. If you were looking for the most exciting time in Canada West this season, it's definitely going to be February 2022!

The Last Word

With all teams having played 14 games and a handful having played 16 games, there will only be six teams playing in the final weekend of the season as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Trinity Western will all be watching to see who does what that weekend. Trinity Western's playoff dreams are, unfortunately, dead at this point so they'll get to play spoiler for the next couple of weekends, but both Manitoba and Saskatchewan will be scoreboard-watching when they're not playing.

When I first saw the Canada West schedule, I didn't foresee the kind of playoff races we're seeing right now. Somehow, though, the hockey gods have granted us with a battle to the final horn on the final weekend to determine who finishes where in Canada West. It'll be interesting to see who finishes where this season, but this is the perfect time to lobby for some support because these will be exciting games down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Get your tickets through your local university's athletics department or at the box office if that option is being offered. You'll get to see some amazing players - as shown above by the highlights! - as they look to claim playoff positions. Come down, see some great hockey for relatively inexpensive prices, and cheer on your local squad as they look to capture Canada West glory!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!