Lethbridge – The Lethbridge Pronghorn women's hockey team will renew acquaintances with southern Alberta rival Calgary Dinos in a home-and-home series, starting Friday night in Calgary.
The 'Horns and Dinos will hit the ice at Father David Bauer at 7:00pm Friday and close out the season series Saturday night in Lethbridge. Puck will also drop Saturday night at 7:00pm at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
The Dinos swept the 'Horns in early October, winning by 5-1 and 6-1 scores.
The Dinos (11-5-4) aspirations to finish first in the conference took a major hit last weekend after being swept by cross-town rival Mount Royal Cougars. The Cougars leap frogged the Pronghorns with their 3-2 and 5-2 wins over the Dinos. With four weekends remaining in the conference schedule, the Dinos are fourth place and trail the conference leading Alberta Pandas by five points, but are only four points ahead of fifth place Saskatchewan Huskies.
Following a pair of losses last weekend in Edmonton versus the Pandas, the 'Horns (4-16-0) fell into last place in the conference and are mired in a four game losing streak.
As the lowest scoring team in the conference with only 24 goals in 20 games, the Pronghorns are led offensively by Jenae Culp and Sadie Lenstra with 10 points. Culp leads the team in goals with six.
Russian Olympic team member Iya Gavrilova leads Canada West in scoring with 17 goals and 15 assists in 20 games, while Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist Hayley Wickenheiser has 19 points in only 15 games.
In the crease, Crystal Patterson enters the home stretch of her university career, having played all but 20 minutes this season and sports a 3.12 goals-against-average and a 0.913 save percentage.
For the Dinos, Hayley Dowling leads Dino goaltenders with a 1.73 goals-against-average and a 0.928 save percentage but did not see action in either game last weekend. Carissa Fischer suffered both losses last weekend and holds a 3.14 goals-against-average in eight appearances.
The 'Horns head out on the road next weekend traveling to Vancouver to take on the UBC Thunderbirds.
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