It was an evening of despair and frustration for the Dinos women’s hockey team as all valiant efforts to score were beaten by NAIT netminder Lauryn Dzioba and they lost their first game of the new year 2-1 to the Ooks at the Olympic Oval on Friday.
The Dinos followed this loss with a commanding 8-1 victory over the Ooks in Edmonton on Saturday night.
The failure for the Dinos on Friday was their power play, which went 0-2 in the first and 0-8 in the game.
The Dinos controlled play for the majority of the first period, but were unable to solve Dzioba. They peppered her with nine shots while only allowing three against.
The second period was full of tremendous action as all three goals were scored. The Ooks took the early lead when Kendel Jurista hacked away at a loose puck in front of the Dino net, eventually banging it home for the goal.
The Ooks were not done there and only six minutes later they scored their second goal of the game, which turned out to be the game winner.
Dinos goalie Katie Urness made the initial save off of a Chelsea Curzun point shot, but was unable to control the rebound and Lacey Hollington scooped up the puck and put it past Urness.
Three minutes after NAIT’s second goal, Shelby Davey took a pass and went in alone on Dzioba. Before she could shoot, she was unceremoniously hauled down and awarded a penalty shot.
Davey got revenge and on the breakaway managed to force Dzioba to move to the right before sliding the puck into the left side of the net. This cut the Ooks lead in half, but it was as close as the Dinos would get in the game.
The third period was mundane and neither team was able to score despite plenty of opportunities. The Dinos were given several power plays in the frame, but were unable to convert.
In the final 30 seconds of the period, Calgary was awarded a five-on-three power play, but, again, didn’t score.
The Dinos took the loss extremely hard as was evident by a lack of enthusiasm for post-game interviews. In fact, they allowed none. Instead they held a team meeting, discussing the loss.
The only quote of the day came as a shout from the locker room.
“We are holding a team meeting; there will be no interviews today,” yelled an unknown player.
The meeting seemed to be effective and the next evening the Dinos destroyed NAIT 8-1. Seven Dinos scored in the rematch with Elana Lovell leading the way, scoring two goals, and Tiara Schoenroth adding one goal and two assists.
Urness rebounded with a 16-save performance.
The Dinos remain in first place in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference standings with 26 points, four up on second place SAIT.