RDC Queens pick up 1 point to kick off 2017

The Red Deer College Queens Hockey team finished 2016 in fine form capturing first place in ACAC Women's Hockey with one of their most complete games of the season on home ice and were looking to carry that over into 2017. Jen West started in goal for the Queens at the ENMAX Centrium while Elisha Oswald was in net for the Trojans. In the first game after the break it took awhile for both teams to find their rhythm and skating legs. SAIT eventually edged RDC 3-2 in overtime.

Red Deer College struck first at 10:28 into the first period when Cassidy Anderson found the back of the net on the power play. Bachelor of Science student, Ashley Graf picked up the lone assist. With 4:53 left in the opening frame, SAIT tied the game up 1-1 on a goal by Shealee Dolan. Madison Fjellstrom set up the goal from behind the Queens net when she reversed the flow of the play and found Dolan in front. 

After 20 minutes of play, the Queens tested Oswald 4 times while West looked sharp and stopped 7-of-8 shots.

The Trojans had several quality chances in the second period but West maintained her strong play in net to keep the game knotted up 1-1 for most of the period. With 4.7 seconds left in the period, SAIT took a 2-1 lead on a goal by Emily Potts. Madison Fjellstrom picked up her second assist of the game. Potts scored just under the crossbar to West's blocker side. Despite the goal, West's sound performance gave the Queens an opportunity to battle back.

In the second period, SAIT had 16 shots on West while RDC tested Oswald 4 times.

The Queens started the final period strongly and Jade Petrie tied the game up 2-2 at 2:56 into the third period. The Legal Assistant Diploma student intercepted a pass at the Trojans blue line, skated in alone on goal and scored low on Oswald's stick side. Both goaltenders were perfect for the rest of regulation time and the game headed to a 5 minute overtime period. West turned aside 11 more shots while Oswald stopped 9-of-10 shots in the third. 

SAIT began overtime with a power play that carried over from the third period. Fifty-one seconds into overtime Tashel Scantlebury scored to give the Trojans the victory. The Queens picked up 1 point on the night and bumped their point total to 21 while retaining top spot in ACAC Women's Hockey. 

Red Deer College Queens Hockey Head Coach Kelly Coulter recognized the difficulty of playing after over a month away from game action.

"It's a challenge coming back after a long Christmas break," said Coulter. "We didn't have our feet under us tonight."

As the RDC Queens hit the ice in the third period, they showed more signs of what makes the team successful.

"We started to play more Queens-like-hockey by pressuring the puck, creating turnovers and fortunately Jade was able to tie the game. It is a lesson learned," said Coulter. "There are nights that the legs aren't working but then the heads need to work. That's why we want to put structure into our game, develop habits and make the puck do the work. Unfortunately, we didn't do that as well as we should have tonight."

Since the break, the RDC Queens lost 1 of their 3 goaltenders but are very confident in the abilities of Jen West and Tracie Kikuchi.

"Alex Frisk has left us to pursue married life but I think we still have two very good goalies on our team," said Coulter. "Jen played outstanding for our team tonight." 

West was appropriately named the RDC Queens player-of-the-game and stopped 34-of-37 shots. The Queens connected on 1-of-3 power play opportunities while the Trojans went 1-for-4 with the extra skater. 

In Calgary, the Queens face the SAIT Trojans in a rematch Saturday, Jan. 7 at 7:00 p.m. The RDC Queens will look to pick up 3-of-4 points in the weekend series.