Queens 1 Trojans 0 (OT)
It wasn’t her goal-scoring ability that earned Lindsay Hogg a berth on last year’s Alberta Colleges Women’s Hockey League all-star team.
In fact the veteran rearguard has only one goal during her first three regular seasons with the RDC Queens.
On Thursday she equalled that total, beating SAIT Trojans netminder Lindsay Coghlan at 2:39 of overtime, giving the Queens a 1-0 victory at the Arena.
Hogg jumped into the play to compliment forwards Jessica Abt and Karla Bourke and grabbed a loose puck that squirted into the slot and gave Coghlan no chance.
“I’m not really a goal-scorer, in fact I think I have only three goals my career and I can remember every one of them,” Hogg said with a laugh. “But this was pretty exciting.
“Rob (head coach Rob Weddell) is always telling the defence to jump in the play if they get an opportunity and it worked.”
The win was the first home victory of the season for the Queens, who had a loss and two ties in their previous three home starts.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Hogg, who is also the team’s captain. “It was getting a little frustrating, but everyone has been really positive and we’ve done a lot of jelling at practice and this was big for our confidence.”
The win gave the Queens a 2-3-2 record and moved them into third-place tie with NAIT and Grant MacEwan, two points back of the Trojans, 4-3-0-0.
It was the first shutout of the season for Queens netminder Kaitlyn Chapman, who lowered her league-leading goals-against-average to 1.33 and increased her save percentage to .955.
“Chappy has been outstanding for us, tonight she really held her ground when we needed it . . . in fact we have to give her a lot of credit for what success we’ve had this season,” said Hogg.
Chapman was glad to see the shutout beside her name, but was happier to see the win.
“It was just what we needed,” she said. “It’s a relief.”
Chapman was the story of the game in the first period, making 17 of her 27 saves, several on the outstanding variety.
“I thought me defence did a good job of clearing out in front of me, so I could see the puck,” she said.
“But things have been going well this season and I’m playing with a lot of confidence. The big thing is the team and coaches believe in me. I’m in a comfort zone right now,”
Weddell had to smile when talking about Chapman, but would like to see the team start a little better.
“I thought I was going to pull my hair out after that first period,” he said.
“But to the girls’ credit, they settled down and did a lot of the things we’ve been talking about in practice after the first intermission.”
One of the things was working the puck out of their zone along the boards, rather than up the middle.
“We’ve been talking about keeping it simple and for the most part we did a better job. There’s no reason to move the puck through the middle.”
When they did they paid for it, with good scoring opportunities by the Trojans. That’s where Chapman came in.
l The Queens finished with 25 shots on Coghlan . . . The teams meet again tonight in Calgary . . . Queens were without veteran defenceman Janel Lirette (shoulder) . . . SAIT has two former Red Deer midget players — Rylee Scott and Lundie Graham — on their roster . . . The RDC squad returns home next Thursday against MacEwan.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com