EDMONTON - Third-year forward Alannah Kedra scored a pair of goals to help the No.7 ranked University of Alberta Pandas' hockey team to a 4-0 win over the visiting UBC Thunderbirds, Friday night at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton.
Monika Moskalski and Nicole Pratt also scored for the Pandas, while goalie Kaitlyn Chapman recorded her seventh win and second shutout of the season. She leads Canada West in goals against average, 1.11, and also has a sparkling .939 save percentage. Team leading scorer Sarah Hilworth drew an assist on three of the goals to increase her totals to 15 assists and 24 points in 21 games. The fourth-year forward is now tied for second in conference scoring, and is just two points back of first place.
The win improves Alberta's record to 11-3-7, good enough for 29 points and third place in the conference. Saskatchewan and Calgary are tied for first with 30 points each, however the Huskies are on their 'bye' week, which means both Calgary and Alberta can overtake them temporarily at least.
In other action on Friday, the Dinos recorded a 4-0 win over Regina, while Lethbridge beat Manitoba. If both Alberta and Calgary sweep this weekend, the Dinos will move into first place, while Alberta would settle into second place by one point. Only the top four teams make the playoffs with the top two hosting; Saskatchewan has games against Calgary and UBC to close out their regular season, while Alberta will take a 'bye' week next week and then close out against Regina. Calgary finishes up at home against the Huskies and on the road in Manitoba. The Lethbridge Pronghorns currently occupy fourth place, but trail the Pandas by just three points, and are only up on the Bisons by three as well.
Moskalski scored Alberta's first, and game winning goal on Friday night, when she took a pass out of the corner from Katie Stewart and then wristed the puck over the shoulder of rookie Thunderbirds' goalie
Carly Butcher at 15:22.
Pratt, who is second in Canada West defencemen scoring, doubled Alberta's lead three minutes later when she unloaded a power-play bullet from the top of the face-off circle past Butcher's glove.
UBC had their best period of the night in the second stanza, but still couldn't solve Chapman in the Alberta goal.
Tamara Pickford, a fifth-year forward from Chilliwack, BC, recorded UBC's best chance for a goal at 13:30 of the second, when she stepped around an Alberta defender and let go a shot that forced Chapman to make a good save.
The Pandas scored again on the PP in the third period after Hilworth's initial shot was saved and Kedra was able to bury her second rebound attempt at 11:14. Two minutes and 12 seconds later, Kedra was sent in all alone on a breakaway by Hilworth, and made no mistake, snapping the puck up stairs, glove side for the 4-0 final.
The two teams will go at it again tomorrow night, 6 p.m., in Edmonton's Clare Drake Arena.
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