CALGARY – For the first time since 2001, the No. 3-ranked University of Calgary Dinos are headed to the CIS championship after disposing of the Lethbridge Pronghorns 7-1 Saturday night at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park.

Boxscore

The big win gives the Dinos their first-ever Canada West playoff series win and sends them to the conference final, where they will host the Alberta Pandas in a best-of-three series next weekend. And because of Alberta’s sweep of Saskatchewan in the other conference semi-final, Calgary is guaranteed to join the host Pandas at the national championship at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton March 8-11.

It’s Calgary’s second trip to the national tournament, the first since 2001 when the Dinos hosted the event, and the first since the program rejoined Canada West and CIS competition following a seven-year stint in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.

The Dinos won their 13^th consecutive game with an overpowering effort in what head coach Danielle Goyette called “one of the fastest games we’ve played all season.”

“It’s huge for the program,” said Goyette. “When you think about where we’ve come from, you really have to give credit to the players. They showed tonight that they were hungry. As a coach, I want more all the time, and we know we have to prepare for next week, because we want that to win the West. Going to nationals is great, and we’ll enjoy it tonight.

“We know Alberta has been the top program in the conference for a long time, and as a young program we want to prove to ourselves that we can compete with them. Our goal is to win the league, and we have to go through them to do it.”

Just like game one, a 3-0 Dinos victory, the Pronghorns were able to cement some early pressure in the Dinos’ end, but again Lethbridge’s problem was getting the puck on net. At one point the shots read 2-1 in favor of Lethbridge, but it never got better than that and by the time intermission came, Calgary held a 13-7 lead in shots.

At the 13:44 mark Hayley Wickenheiser came in from the right shot where she wired a quick shot on net. Crystal Patterson made the stop, but Iya Gavrilova was on the doorstep to register her third goal of the series.

Following the Dinos’ first goal, the home team received their first power play of the game and didn’t waste any time capitalizing on it. Tanya Morgan jumped on a rebound off another Wickenheiser shot to give Calgary a 2-0 lead at 14:20. The Dinos carried that lead into the break.

Lethbridge started the second period by making a goaltending change as Shauntelle Parsons came in to relieve Patterson, who was injured late in period one.

Calgary’s third goal came 11:56 into the middle stanza as Calaine Inglis’ shot from the top of the zone found its way through a maze and into the back of the net.

Less than a minute later Gavrilova let a laser beam go to net her second consecutive two-goal game. With the assist, Wickenheiser picked up her fourth helper of the night and sixth of the series.

Jenna-Marie Durnin recorded the lone goal for the Pronghorns during a power play at 18:18 of the second period. While cycling in the offensive zone, Durnin’s attempt found a hole in Amanda Tapp as the Pronghorns were able to break the goose egg that had been haunting them in this series.

Calgary officially put the game out of reach in the final frame with three more goals. Inglis tallied her second of the night less than three minutes into the period. Midway through the period Erin Davidson found herself alone on Parsons and fired it past her. It was Davidson’s second goal in as many nights. Alex Gowie put the finishing touches on in the final second as she scored the seventh and final goal.

The Dinos outshot the Pronghorns 40-21. Calgary went 2-for-6 on the power play, while Lethbridge was 1-for-8.

The Dinos now turn their attention to their archrivals, as the Battle of Alberta gets set to heat up the ice Feb. 24-26 for the Canada West title. Game 1 goes Friday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m., with Game 2 a night later with puck drop at 8 p.m. If necessary, the third and deciding game will take place Sunday, Feb. 26 at 6:15 p.m. All three games will be streamed live on CanadaWest.tv.