Weekend Update: Women’s Hockey

By Еvan Osentоn

Let’s cut the usual literary preamble and get right to the point–our women hockeysaurs lost to the University of Alberta Pandas last weekend. Not only did they lose, but they lost in spectacular fashion, dropping a 7-0 decision at home to their northern rivals on Fri., Jan. 12 and losing 11-0 the following night at the Claire Drake Arena in our economically-depressed provincial capital.

The Dinos managed… hmm, that can’t be right. The press release says they got seven shots on net on Friday night. That seems generous. Friday night’s game featured a lot of Dino hustle–unfortunately, most of it in their own end.

To be fair, the Pandas are the juggernaut of the women’s university hockey world, and anything less than a second-consecutive CIAU championship will result in gut-twisting disappointment. The Dinos are young, but 18-0 over two days? A 1-10-1 record on the season? Surely, by now, the Dinos must dread going to the rink every day.

Dinos forward Suzanne Hanchar, whose play has been one of the few bright points in an otherwise dismal campaign, resented the suggestion team morale must be suffering.

"You have to stay positive," she said. "We remember the things we did right, and we build on them. We’ve had some close games."

Point taken. The Dinos have been close in nearly every game. It seems the only team with which they have difficulty is the U of A.

Hanchar added the Jan. 13 game was a lot closer than the 11-goal differential suggests.

"In Saturday’s game, we just had some tough breaks," she said. "I thought as a team we played well, [but] the goals just went in for them. We played more in their end [than in Friday’s game], but the score didn’t indicate that."

It’s too bad scores are unfortunately the benchmark against which teams are judged playoff-worthy, because if the Dinos were rewarded for hard work–well, let’s just say Friday’s score would have been reversed. Alas.

The Dinos next game is Jan. 19 against the University of Manitoba.