Queens defeat Ooks, move into tie for 1st

In Edmonton, the Red Deer College Queens faced the NAIT Ooks Saturday in a battle for 1st place in ACAC Women's Hockey. The Queens were looking for a consistent effort and tonight they got it. After NAIT opened the scoring, RDC scored the next 2 goals and skated to a 2-1 road victory.

Jen West was in net for the Queens while McKenna Wild guarded the cage for the Ooks.

At 7:45 of the 1st period, Brittney Savard scored on the power play to give NAIT a 1-0 lead. The Queens responded with a power play goal of their own with 2:36 remaining in the period. Cassidy Anderson found the back of the net to knot the game up 1-1. Kaely McMurtry picked up the lone assist. West turned aside 9-of-10 shots while Wild stopped 13-of-14 shots.

In the 2nd period, the RDC Queens peppered Wild with 17 shots. The NAIT Ooks tested West 10 times but the Queens goaltender was perfect.

The game remained tied, until Jade Petrie scored the game winning goal with only 2:14 left in the 3rd period. Emily Swier and Rikki Smith picked up the helpers. West shut the door and the Red Deer College Queens picked up an important 2-1 victory. The Queens tested Wild 6 times in the final period while the Ooks had 8 shots on West. RDC outshot NAIT 37-28 over 3 periods.

Queens Head Coach Kelly Coulter liked the effort tonight.

"It was a much better effort overall tonight and everyone played very hard," said Coulter. "Overall, the team managed the puck very well in all zones. We created much better offensive zone pressure tonight. Jen West was solid for us between the pipes."

The Queens connected on 1-of-6 power plays and successfully killed off 4-of-5 NAIT power play opportunities. With the win, the Queens tie the Ooks for top spot in ACAC Women's Hockey with 25 points.

Next, at the ENMAX Centrium the Queens host the MacEwan University Griffins Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:00 p.m.