VANCOUVER – The No. 3 Calgary Dinos won their fifth straight Canada West women's hockey game on Saturday night beating the host UBC Thunderbirds 4-1 in Vancouver.
“We had some good opportunities, but we didn't capiltaize again on the power play situations so I'm looking for more execution but I'm happy with the battle and compete level," said UBC head coach Jen Rawson after the game.
UBC's goal came at 10:23 of the second period on a power play as
Tatiana Rafter (2nd, Winnipeg, MB) put a loose puck past Calgary's Jennifer Mallard on a goalmouth scramble.
It was Rafter's fourth goal of the year.
"I was happy for Tatiana because she really worked hard on that particular shift," said Rawson.
The Dinos got goals from Maddison Gee, Erika Mitschke, Sinead Tracey and Tanya Morgan.
Calgary scored twice late in the first period, which proved to be enough to leave Vancouver with a sweep of the Thunderbirds.
Gee opened the scoring at 17:17, recording her first tally of the season.
Then Mitschke put home the game-winner 1:20 later. She was part of a scrum in front of the UBC net and was able to pounce on a loose puck and shoot it past UBC goaltender
Carly Butcher (1st, Bellingham, WA), who made 28 saves in a losing cause.
"Carly played a great game," said Rawson. "I thought she was aggressive and battled well to see pucks and especially on second shots, she was really strong."
In the second period, Tracey found the net on a power play for Calgary at 4:43 before teammate Morgan rounded out the Dinos' scoring at 8:14.
Rafter's goal at 10:23 ruined Mallard's bid for a second consecutive shutout, although she would get her third victory of the season after making 14 saves.
Just 33 seconds later, Calgary's Iya Gavrilova was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for checking UBC's
Nikola Brown-John (2nd, Monte Lake, BC) into the boards and making contact with her head on the play.
UBC went 1 for 4 on the power play, while Calgary converted once on five opportunities.
"I thought we showed a lot in our transitions, we were quicker in the neutral zone and from offence to defence," said Rawson. "We actually changed our forecheck this week and I thought that was effective. We are learning the speed and tempo of the game we need to play and the importance of the consistency of the little things we do in and out each shift. I just think we are getting better at that."
The Thunderbirds (1-15-2) will play at Alberta next weekend.
With tonight's win, Calgary improves to 14-4-0, two points behind Saskatchewan for first place in the Canada West. The Dinos will head to Regina for two games next weekend.
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