Box Score
CALGARY – Julia Duke's two goals led the Mount Royal University Cougars to a 4-3 victory over the University of Alberta Pandas in Saturday night Canada West women's hockey play.

It was all Alberta to start at Flames Community Arena.

The Pandas scored their first goal of the weekend just minutes into Saturday's rematch. Rookie blueliner Jaylah Bottle fired a shot through Scout Anderson's five-hole just as a Mount Royal penalty expired. 

Five minutes later, Alberta doubled up on the Cougars. Second-year forward Hailey Carothers notched her first of the 2026-27 campaign after Mount Royal coughed up a costly turnover in their own end.

Fortunately for MRU, they headed to their league-best powerplay, late in the period. Julia Duke got her second goal in as many games, potting home a rebound to cut the deficit to one.

"We're all communicating together out there; we're seeing what our options are. Every time we get to the bench, we're telling each other when we were open," said Duke on the Cougars' powerplay, which is operating at a 42.9% success rate and went 3-for-4 in Saturday's contest.

Later in the period, Allee Gerrard scored the equalizer, also on the advantage for her second of the year.

The Cougars piled on to take total control as the period went on with a go-ahead goal from Lyvia Butz and then Duke getting her second of the game.

In the third, the Pandas showed some pushback, cutting the lead to one with fifth-year star Abby Soyko getting her first of the year.

It was not enough for Alberta despite a couple of late powerplays as the Cougars hung on for the sweep and stayed undefeated on the season.

Despite being undefeated, the Cougars remained outside of the U SPORTS national top 10 rankings. However, the team only uses it as motivation and doesn't take it too seriously.

"We know those rankings don't speak the truth about us. We know who we are as a group and those rankings don't show it. So we just use it as fuel and prove everyone wrong," said Duke.

The Cougars are back on the road next weekend to take on the 5-1-0 UBC Thunderbirds.