VANCOUVER – The Regina Cougars blanked UBC 3-0 to complete the two-game sweep of the Thunderbirds Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Sports Centre. Regina's rookie netminder Jennifer Schmidt turned aside all of UBC's 25 shots on goal to notch her first career CIS shutout and victory.
Battling out of a scrum in the left wing corner 14 minutes into the first period, Regina's Katelyn Kennedy combined with Kaitlin Sherven to set up a wraparound play as Kennedy cleverly jammed the puck up the stick blade of UBC goaltender
Samantha Langford into the top corner of the net to open the scoring.
The Cougars doubled their lead 10:41 into the second period when defenceman Jade Dennis banked a pass to herself at the right face-off circle to slip by two Thunderbirds before feeding forward Darcy Kirkwood at the top of the UBC crease for a one-timer stick side into the goal.
Six minutes later, Sherven capped off Regina's scoring as she outreached two UBC defenders at the left doorstep to hammer in the crossbar rebound of Stephanie Sawchuck's 40-foot wrist shot.
Scoring chances were tough to come by for the Thunderbirds, as head coach Jen Rawson noted, "We lacked a bit of urgency on our attack. I thought we were maybe just a little more hesitant than we were last night. It hurt us in that respect to establish our forecheck. Overall, we got better in the third period, but we didn't capitalize on our chances earlier in the game."
Nikola Brown-John was UBC's most prominent player in shooting and physicality as she registered a game-high 7 shots on goal and two bodychecking penalties. Playing in goal for the Thunderbirds in her second start of the season, Langford made 24 saves on 27 shots.
Penalty killing proved to be the stronger facet of special teams for both sides as the Cougars and Thunderbirds were a combined 0-for-11 on the power play.
In the Canada West conference standings, UBC remains in a share of sixth place with Manitoba at 1-2-1. Regina, meanwhile, evens up to a 3-3-0 record, moving up one spot to a tie in fourth place with the Dinos.
The Thunderbirds will travel to Calgary next week to battle the Dinos on Nov. 4th and 5th, while the Cougars will take a bye week before returning to action on Nov. 11th and 12th to also face-off against the Dinos in Calgary.
