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Cougars maul Queens

It took the RDC Queens close to 30 minutes to find any kind of cohesion to their game and by then it was to late.
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RDC Queen Becca Glackin breaks in on the goal as she is checked by Mount Royal Cougar Jillian Hartley during MRU’s 5-0 win Thursday.

Cougars 5 Queens 0

It took the RDC Queens close to 30 minutes to find any kind of cohesion to their game and by then it was to late.

The Queens fell behind 4-0 in the first period and dropped a 5-0 decision to the league-leading Mount Royal University Cougars in Alberta Colleges Women’s Hockey League play at the Arena Thursday.

“Part of it was the fact we didn’t have our legs, but we also weren’t happy with the first few goals and Kenny (goaltender Kendra Lakeman) wasn’t either,” said Queens head coach Rob Weddell. “It was the first time she met Grace Gaska and she knows her reputation of being a great goaltender and was a bit nervous. So we had a little talk with her after the first period and calmed her down a bit.”

Gaska, who played with RDC two years ago, just enrolled at RDC Thursday morning and was on the bench as back up to Lakeman that evening. Her return to RDC was huge as the Queens were down to one goaltender after rookie Courtney Rea ran into some academic problems and couldn’t return to the team until she rewrites an exam this month.

“It was a race for Grace as she enrolled today and got to the rink at 5:40 (for the 7 p.m. game),” said Weddell. “It was the first time most of the team met her, so there was a bit of a distraction there. Kenny for sure had to get over it.”

Lakeman, who made only five saves the first period, looked more like herself in the second period, allowing only a rebound goal on a MRU power play in the second period.

By the third period the Queens looked to be the better team and overall controlled play.

“I thought we came out strong in the first couple of minutes, but after a couple of quick goals we certainly let down,” said Queens captain and defensive leader Kimberly Day. “But the thing is we stayed positive.”

“Despite the loss, I was proud of the girls and there were some good things we can take out of this game,” added Weddell. “Being down 5-0 it would have been easy for the girls to fold their tents, but they kept working and we can build on that.”

The Queens are also using only four defencemen, but that’s fine said Day.

“If we stay healthy we’ll continue to improve from where we’re at,” she said. “It just took us a bit of time to get used to each other today. But overall there were some positives and the nice thing is everyone out there wants to be here for the right reasons.”

The Queens did lose four players at Christmas in Rea, defenceman Teagan Campbell and forwards Skyler Fahlman and Erin Heinemann.

“I think we expected a couple of losses, but the other two kind of shocked us,” said Day. “But as I said the girls who are here want to be here.”

As captain, Day said she didn’t have to do a lot to help the team after losing the players.

“Not much, but I tried to help everyone understand a bit that there’s positives and negatives and we can’t focus on the negatives. They’re out of our control. We have to stick together and be on the same page.”

Tanika Dawson scored a pair of goals for the Cougars with Chelsey Morrill, Red Deer native Sarah Sharp and Shyla Beaven adding single markers.

Kendall Kilgour made 18 saves for the shutout while Lakeman faced 22 shots.

The Cougars ran their record to 14-0-1 while RDC dropped to 2-11-0.

The two teams meet again tonight in Calgary.

“That’s another challenge for us, playing back-to-back games,” said Weddell. “We did it only once in the first part of the schedule.”

drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com