Lethbridge – Coming off a conference wide bye week, the Lethbridge Pronghorn women’s hockey team (4-4-2 CW) will face the newest member of the conference, Mount Royal Cougars (4-4-2 CW) for the first time in conference action this weekend in a home-and-home series that begins Friday in Calgary.
 
Friday night’s game is scheduled for 7:00pm at the Flames Community Arena and the ‘Horns will host the return affair Saturday night at Nicholas Sheran Arena at 7:00pm. Both games will be broadcast at www.canadawest.tv, home for all Canada West webcasts.
 
Through five weekends of the conference schedule, in addition to having identical records, not much separates the teams on paper.  Both teams have scored on average just over two goals a game with the ‘Horns scoring 23 times in ten games, while the Cougars have 22 tallies.
 
As for specialty teams, the ‘Horns and Cougars are the exact opposite of each other.  The ‘Horns have the eighth ranked power play (13.3%) and fifth ranked penalty killing (81.2%), while the Cougars have the fifth ranked power play (14.6%) and eighth ranked penalty killing (76%).
 
One area that the ‘Horns may hold an advantage is in the crease. Last season’s Canada West first team all-star, Crystal Patterson has returned to form and ranks among the leaders in most goaltending categories. On the other hand, the Cougars have used three goaltenders this season and Kendal Kilgour has played in six of the team’s 10 games thus far. Kilgour has a 3.25 goals-against-average, a 0.888 save percentage and earned three of the four Cougar wins.
 
‘Horns sophomore Kirsten Reeves continues lead the ‘Horns in scoring with eight points and is tied for the conference lead in goals with seven. Megan Bailey also has eight points for the ‘Horns, scoring five times and adding three assists.
 
For the Cougars, four players have scored multiple goals this season and are led by Chrissy Hodgson and Tanika Dawson who have both recorded nine points.
 
During the preseason, the ‘Horns swept the Cougars in a home-and-home series in September, winning both games by identical 2-0 scores.

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