Brooklyn Anderson tied things up midway through the third and Sydney Mercier netted the game-winner in the shootout as the Calgary Dinos women’s hockey team put together an impressive team effort for a 2-1 shootout win over the rival Mount Royal Cougars in front of a raucous crowd in the Scotiabank Saddledome for the annual Crowchild Classic Friday afternoon.
Amelia Awad was huge in net for the Dinos, stopping 34 shots including all three in the shootout.
“I’m proud of the entire group,” said Dinos head coach Josh Gosling. “They came in with the right mindset. The energy was great. Everybody was in it for the team today — everybody was pulling the rope the same way.”
After a scoreless first period, MRU was first on the scoreboard as Summer Fomradas scored her second in as many weeks, firing one from the top of the zone through a load of traffic in front of the net just 2:11 into the second.
The Dinos responded in a big way, ripping off nine shots on goal in the second and creating every more dangerous chances, but Cougars goaltender Kaitlyn Ross was up to the challenge. She turned aside 23 shots.
Calgary continued to crank up the pressure in the third and was finally rewarded for its efforts. Anderson carried the puck toward net before slotting it off to Mercier in the corner. Mercier immediately passed it back to Anderson in front of the net and she made no mistake to level things up at 1-1 and bring the Dinos faithful to their feet.
“Josh pretty much put our power-play unit out there and said you’ve got to go get one, so that was my mindset,” Anderson said. “Just crashed the net and luckily it went in.”
“It felt like a dream. The energy was loud in there and we just fed off that from there.”
The Dinos had a pair of great chances in the waning minutes of regulation and overtime, but the game would carry on to a shootout. Mercier was the second skater for the Dinos and made no mistake, while Awad closed things out by stonewalling the Cougars to send the Dinos bench pouring onto the ice, mobbing their netminder.
“Genuinely, I can’t even put this into words. It’s just so exciting,” Awad said of the winning moment. “I’m from Halifax and my family came out to watch the game. Winning that in front of them meant the world to me.
“I remember being on the bench for these games and thinking ‘I can’t wait to be out there for that.’ I finally got the chance and to pull of the win – it’s absolutely mind blowing.”
The win keeps the Dinos playoff chances alive, moving them to 7-14-2, while MRU moves to 15-4-4.
The weekend Crowchild Classic series wraps up Saturday, with the rematch set for 5 p.m. from Flames Community Arenas.