Looking to kickstart series down 0-2

Sometimes a team needs to be pushed to the edge to know exactly what they’re made of, and the Mount Royal Cougars will discover exactly that as they find themselves on the brink of elimination after falling into a 0-2 hole in their best-of-five series against the SAIT Trojans.

The Cougar women’s hockey team finished the regular season with just one loss, but have now dropped two straight against the Trojans, who finished 16 points behind the Cougars in the regular season standings.

Despite outshooting the Trojans 29-22 on Friday, the Cougars didn’t play their best hockey and dropped game one 4-2 in their home rink. Then at SAIT Arena on Saturday they dropped another heartbreaker 5-4 in double overtime to find themselves facing an abrupt end to their season.

The Trojans jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in game one, scoring just 77 seconds into the first period. Then at 14:57 they made it 2-0 on a goal from standout first year player Lindsey Audia.

The Cougars cut that lead in half on the powerplay early in the second period when Chelsey Morrill took a nice pass from Megan Price and slid it past SAIT netminder Tehnille Gard. The Trojans responded 1:12 later as Audia scored her second of the game, stealing the puck in the neutral zone and potting the eventual game-winner, a shorthanded goal that made it 3-1 Trojans.

Sara Sharp pulled the Cougars within one at 4:29 of the second period, the game’s third goal in under five minutes, but that’s as close as the Cougars would get as the Trojans added their fourth goal late in the second. Kendall Kilgour replaced Leanne Pfliger to start the final frame, but the Cougars couldn’t make anything happen in a scoreless third period.
Saturday’s game at SAIT arena was a barnburner, with all the drama that a finals game should have.

Hedi Syme led the way for the Cougars with a three point night and Chelsey Morrill had two points. Notably absent from the scoresheet on this night was captain Chrissy Hodgson, who had no points in game two and has just one assist in the series. Kendall Kilgour started between the pipes in place of Leanne Pfliger for the Cougars.

The Cougars struck first at 13:19 of the opening period when Syme converted a Tanika Dawson feed to beat Gard for a 1-0 lead. The Trojans would equalize at 4:53 of the second as Lindsey Audia scored her third goal of the series.

The Trojans took the lead at 14:27 of the second frame when Rylee Scott scored shorthanded, exposing the Cougars’ powerplay for the second night in a row. With just 55 seconds remaining in the period Brooke Nelson tied it up, making it 2-2 heading into the third.

At 8:34 of the second period Tia Hanson scored her first of two on the night to give the Trojans a 3-2 lead, and just 33 seconds later the Trojans scored again to extend their lead to two with half a period to play.

The Cougars weren’t done fighting, though, and at 11:08 Morrill scored on the powerplay to pull within one goal. The Cougars pulled their goaltender with 59 seconds remaining, and with 20 seconds left on the clock and the extra attacker out on the ice, Megan Price slid in from the point and roofed a rebound to take the game into overtime at 4-4.

The first ten minute overtime solved nothing, but at 2:28 into the second OT Tia Hanson caused a turnover in the neutral zone and jumped out on the breakaway. She made no mistake, beating Kilgour top shelf for the 5-4 victory and leaving her team just one win away from a major upset and an ACAC Championship title.

The Cougars will have to dig deep if they want to pull out the series, but with two of the possible next three games on home ice, the Cougars only need a win to get the momentum going.

Game three will go at MRU on Friday, March 18th at 7:00 p.m. before returning to SAIT, if necessary, for game four on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

If the Cougars can win a pair of games to even the series, game five would go on Sunday, March 20th again at 7:00 p.m. at Flames Community Arenas.

Best of luck Cougars!