Queens 5 Cougars 1
The Red Deer College Queens will have momentum on their side as they conclude the first half of their Alberta Colleges Women’s Hockey League schedule tonight against the Mount Royal Cougars in Calgary.
Karla Bourke erupted for four goals and contributed an assist as the Queens dumped the first-place Cougars 5-1 on Thursday at the Arena.
The win lifted the RDC squad out of sole possession of the league basement and into a fourth-place tie with MacEwan in the five-team loop. “It’s been a big goal of the team just to get the puck to the net and we did that tonight,” said Bourke, a second-year forward.
“The goals came easy, a couple of the girls set me up. It was awesome, I just had to pretty much finish the plays.”
Amber Graham scored a last-minute goal for the Queens, who led 3-1 after 40 minutes following a scoreless opening period and got a 21-save performance from Kaitlyn Chapman.
“We needed two wins this week and for sure one,” said Bourke. “To get these two points is great, now Friday’s game is huge for us. If we can get another two points we’re out of last place and that’s really what we want.”
Bourke said the Queens, regardless of tonight’s result, can use Thursday’s performance as a guide for the remainder of the season.
“This is exactly how we want to start playing. We had a bit of a shaky start to the season, now we just have to play simple hockey and get pucks to the net,” she noted.
Jaime Teichman notched the lone goal for the 7-4-1-1 Cougars, while netminder Leanne Pfilger made 24 saves.
“It’s good to have a strong game like this at home against a first-place team. We haven’t been stellar at home so this was very important for us,” said RDC coach Rob Weddell, who credited Chapman for helping the Queens improve their record to 4-5-0-2.
“We killed a late penalty and back-to-back penalties earlier in the game,” he said.
“Of course, the biggest part of your penalty kill is your goaltender and Chapman was very solid tonight. She controlled her rebounds well.”
Weddell insisted the Cougars will be out for revenge tonight. “We played well, but Mount Royal did not have their best game, for sure,” said the Queens coach.
“We need to win tomorrow night to get us ahead of MacEwan. We’re focused on that game and we’re expecting Mount Royal to be much better at home.
“At the same time, tonight’s game was definitely a good confidence boost for our girls.”
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com