Pair of wins over SAIT Trojans

Coming off their first loss of the season, the Cougar women’s hockey team were determined to get back on track this weekend as they faced their cross-town rivals, the SAIT Trojans in a home and home series.

The last game between these two teams ended 3-2 in overtime, and most say the Cougars were lucky to escape with a win that day. This time around, though, the Cougars were far better, and won both games this weekend, 5-2 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday.

Led by Taralynn Suzuki, who had three points Friday (2G, 1A), the Cougars looked to be in top form as they visited SAIT arena.

Suzuki opened the scoring just 1:28 into the game, sliding one past the Trojan netminder off a Tanika Dawson feed. Dawson also finished with three points on the night (1G, 2A).
The Trojans tied the game up on the powerplay with just 1:10 remaining in the first, and the teams began the second period all square.

Dawson gave the Cougars the lead with under three minutes gone in the second, again hooking up with Suzuki to make it 2-1. Suzuki would add her second of the game at 17:11 of the second period off a Hedi Syme setup pass to make it 3-1, and then with time expiring in the second frame, the ever-consistent Shyla Stadnicki buried a shorthanded goal past the Trojan netminder to go up 4-1.

The Trojans made it 4-2 at 15:46 of the third, but less than a minute later the Cougars’ captain and star Chrissy Hodgson put on the finishing touches with a nice effort to make it 5-2.

Kendall Kilgour stopped 12 of 14 shots for the win. The Cougars outshot the Trojans 31-14.
Saturday’s game was slightly closer than Friday’s matchup, but the result, virtually the same.

The Trojans struck first on the powerplay at 3:54 of the first to make it 1-0 for the visitors. Taralynn Suzuki scored her third goal of the weekend at 13:53 to knot it at one.

Stadnicki put the Cougars ahead at 6:27 of the second, and Hedi Syme would add a late powerplay goal and the eventual game winner to make it 3-1 Cougars heading into the final frame.

The Trojans made a game of it by scoring at 6:32 of the third period and pulling within one, but the Cougars held on and Tanika Dawson put home an empty netter to seal the win.
Syme, Dawson and Jesslyn Legasse each had two points on the night.

The Cougars will play the Red Deer College Queens twice next weekend to cap off their regular season. The two teams will play at Flames Community Arenas on Saturday, Feb 12th. Puck drops at 7:15 p.m.