CALGARY - The Mount Royal University Cougars were bumped up to the fourth spot in the Canada West rankings with a victory over the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. A third period push led to their 2-1 win at the Flames Community Arenas. 

For Mount Royal, Anna Purschke led with four shots on net and one goal. For the Thunderbirds, Mackenzie Kordic led with two shots on net and one goal. 

The final shots were 26-18 for Mount Royal. 

Mount Royal set the pace for the first period, finding their momentum early on. They were pushing some heavy offensive plays, keeping much of the play in the Thunderbirds zone. However, British Columbia was successfully fending off their maneuvers with their strong defenders. The period ended with a stalemate of no goals. 

Sparks were starting to fly in the second as the two teams struggled to gain an advantage over the play. The Thunderbirds were capitalizing on their fastest skaters, outrunning the Cougars in several plays. However, they failed to break the stalemate by the buzzer despite strong efforts from both sides. 

The game took a real shift in the third as the pressure was on. After seven minutes of play, Mount Royal's forward Purschke finally found an opportunity to slip past the defenders and fire the puck into the net. At the 14 minute mark, Cougars' Emma Bergesen took a long shot from the blue line that just went past Thunderbirds goalie Tory Micklash. In response, B.C. risked an empty net to push their offensive. Within less than a minute, Thunderbirds Kordic earned her first goal of her USPORTS career on a redirect with assistance from Hannah Koroll. The Thunderbirds made one final push, but were unable to close the gap by the buzzer. 

The teams will face off for the final time on Saturday, February 8th, at the Flames Community Arenas. It will be broadcasted live on CanadaWest.tv, presented by Co-op.