With the playoffs on the horizon the University of Calgary Dinos Women’s hockey team received a 4-2 thrashing at the hands of the SAIT Trojans at the Olympic Oval on Feb. 14.
“It’s a disappointing loss, but [there’s] nothing we can do,” said forward Becky Niehaus.
The game had playoff implications as whoever won would end the season in first place. The Dinos led the standings for the majority of the season before losing to SAIT in the final game. The teams accumulated the same amount of points during the season but the Trojans had more regular wins.
“The playoffs are a totally new season, and it doesn’t matter where you finish in the season, you have to show up,” said Dinos head coach Danielle Goyette. “Sometimes two losses before the playoffs is not a bad thing. I think it’s going to wake up the team and they are going to learn if they don’t work together they won’t be successful. We have to see the positive side of things when they happen and hopefully we are going to be able to come back and be better as a team.”
The game started well for both teams, in fact, they were even through the first period. Both teams had six shots on net, zero goals and were involved in plenty of rough play.
The game featured big hits, skirmishes along the boards and several elbows thrown when the ref was not looking.
“I thought the reffing was great, they let a lot go so we could actually play,” said Dinos forward Cassandra Atkins. “I would like to see more rough games where the emotions start going.”
For the Dinos, the night took a turn for the worse in the second period, as SAIT put two goals behind Dinos netminder Katie Urness. The Trojans outskated, outhit and outplayed the Dinos in the period.
The visiting team’s first goal came on the powerplay, courtesy of Emily Burton, who fired a shot through traffic and beat Urness. SAIT followed with another as Bret Seaton shot the puck from the slot and beat Urness, who was screened in front of the net. Despite the Trojans scoring all the goals, the Dinos had more chances, but were unable to beat SAIT netminder Lindsay Coghlan.
“We need to come out and play all three periods,” said Atkins. “If we come out as a team in the first and second, there is no team that is going to beat us.”
The Dinos performed better in the third period, stealing two goals from SAIT, but were unable to complete the comeback. The Dinos got on the board early in the period with Elana Lovell providing the firepower. Lovell fired a shot from the right hand side and beat Coghlan. Forwards Ali Webb and Sinead Tracy notched assists on the play.
The goal did not produce the fire under the pants the Dinos needed and the Trojans potted another goal and put the game out of reach.
Rylie Padjen scored the Trojan goal, making the score 3-1, and stealing all momentum away from the Dinos. Niehaus scored late, but SAIT scored an empty netter, killing off a late, frantic Dinos attack.
The Dinos will battle the Grant MacEwan Griffins in the semi-final, for one of two coveted spots in the ACAC final. To keep sharp, they arranged an exhibition game versus the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
“We’re going to have some exhibition games and keep practising the whole time,” said Niehaus.
Despite finishing second, the season has been a successful one for the Dinos.
“I’m really happy with the season we had, but I’m disappointed,” said Goyette, who was named coach of the year. “We were aiming for first place and although we are at the same amount of points they just have more regular wins.”
The Dinos also had four players make the all-star team with Urness, defenceman Melissa Zubick and Lovell making first team honours and Shelby Davey making the second team.
“I think we did really well [in the season],” said Atkins. “During playoffs everyone is even and we are going to come out hard.”