Sweet Revenge in 9-2 win

Two days after an upset loss to the Red Deer Queens, the Mount Royal Cougar women got their revenge as they lit up the scoreboard on Saturday night with a dominant 9-2 win.

It was a complete effort from the Cougars on a night where shaky goaltending plagued the Queens. The Queens had to make two goaltender changes as the goals piled up, and that really was the deciding factor in Saturday's result.

The Cougars played aggressively throughout the night, and kept on the gas even when the game was already in the bag. The Cougar defense pinched early and often, keeping the puck deep in the attacking zone and putting constant pressure on the Queen’s blueliners.

Second chance scoring was the story tonight, as juicy rebounds kept popping out to the awaiting Cougar forwards.

The Cougars opened the scoring with a pretty powerplay goal at 11:38 of the first period.
Working the puck around on the outside, Rayna Cruickshank fed Tanika Dawson a crisp pass on the sideboards, and Dawson immediately found Kat MacDonald with a back door feed and MacDonald would finish off the tic-tac-toe, burying it into the open net.

The next goal came off a big rebound after a fairly harmless shot from the sideboards ended up right on the stick of Tanika Dawson, who fired it home.

The Cougars would add another before the end of the period to make it 3-0 after one.

Cougar goaltender Jessica Ross had an outstanding game for the Cougars and made some spectacular saves, but none prettier than an absolute robbery just a minute into the second period.

Ross saved a sure goal by snatching a point blank shot from the slot with an amazing glove save. Ross would go on to make a handful of highlight reel saves on the night, which seemed to give her teammates an extra boost.

Emma Lowry made it 4-0 with an innocent looking shot again from the left sideboards, forcing the Queens to swap goaltenders.

That didn’t change much though, as Taylor Mcleod blasted a point shot that found the twine
with just 47 seconds remaining in the second frame.

After Cruickshank made it 6-0 midway through the third period with what looked to be a redirect off her skate, the Queens were finally able to get on the board as a wrap-around attempt trickled over the line.

The Cougars would quickly answer back as Ellen Lind was able to chip the puck past a Queens’ defender on the boards with a great individual effort before taking off on a 2-on-1.

The Queens remaining defender played the pass the whole way, so Lind ripped one from the middle of the circle and beat the Queens’ netminder top shelf on the blocker side.

Captain Chrissy Hodgson got into the action with 6:41 remaining, taking a feed from Dawson and sliding one into the bottom right corner on the backhand to make it 8-1.

After the Queens scored their second goal of the game, Dawson capped off her four point night by picking up another big rebound and firing it in the back of the net for a 9-2 finish.

The Cougars move back to 3-3 on the season with the win, and looked much sharper tonight than in their past couple affairs. The lady Cougars will have next weekend off, and will meet the MacEwan Griffins for the first game of a home-and-home on Remembrance Day in just under two weeks time.