Box Score

WHKY: TWU (0) at MRU (1)

The third place Mount Royal University Cougars shut out the sixth place Trinity Western Spartans 1-0 in game one of the Canada West Women's Hockey Quarter-Final.

Each team played a tight game and suppressed all offence. The Spartans began to take penalties and withheld their ability to score.

"We're a very young team. Our second year in U SPORTS and obviously a lack of experience for us," said Jean Laforest, Trinity Western head coach. "It's a matter of staying focused and staying out of the box. Our penalty kill was really good but we can't rely on our PK to win hockey games."

The Cougars and Spartans went to the room scoreless after 20 minutes.

Trinity Western's goalie, Kate Fawcett was locked in for her team. She made 32 saves on 33 shots and answered the bell when MRU applied tough pressure.

"I feel pretty good on my game. I'm kind of sad that I let one in but at the end of the day there's nothing you can do about it," said Fawcett.

The Cougars finally broke the scoreless tie late in the second period. Athena Hauck made a terrific move do dangle around the Spartan defender and shot the puck passed the glove of Fawcett. Hauck was buzzing all game and was bound to get her team on the board.

"For a goal like that, you just live in the moment," said Hauck. "Throughout the game you can flashbacks of open spaces and imagine what you wanted to do."

Hauck goal would stick as the game winner despite the Spartans pulling their goalie for an extra attacker.

Mount Royal head coach Scott Rivett will look to get another win in game two but values how important getting the first win is.

"There's lot of build up coming into the weekend, so it's exciting to get the first win under our belt and build from it," said the Cougars bench boss. "We want to stay patient. We were certainly generating opportunities to score, but you got to give credit to their goaltender who made a bunch of big saves."

"If I look back to last year, I don't think we faced much adversity," Rivett explained. "This year we got pushed a little bit and we have a resilient group."

Rivett and the Cougars will rematch the Spartans Saturday at 7 p.m. as Trinity Western tries to keep their season alive. Catch the game live on Canada West TV or get tickets here.

Player of the game: Athena Hauck