CALGARY – A three-goal second period and 38-saves from Kelly Campbell led the Western Mustangs to its first-ever CIS Women’s Hockey Championship title with a 5-0 win over the McGill Martlets Sunday night at the Markin MacPhail Centre.
“I was reflecting on this in the third period, but I was thinking about my marriage, the birth of my three kids, being hired by the Ivey Business School and this are just about the highlights of my life,” said Chris Higgins, Western head coach.
“You know, I’m very calm. Tonight, I’ll probably cry, but right now, I’m just so happy for every girl. They just worked their butts off – just a great bunch of kids. This is for them.”
Mustangs win first CIS Women's Hockey Championship in program history: http://t.co/eGUIIv1ukK #PurpleReign pic.twitter.com/xaAsCtD8ha
— Western Mustangs (@WesternMustangs) March 16, 2015
The win makes Western only the third OUA team to hoist The Golden Path trophy, and the first in 10 years since Laurier accomplished the feat in 2005.
Campbell stole the show for the second consecutive game, recording her second straight shutout and earning tournament MVP honours after only allowing one goal on 94 shots in three games.
"@WesternMustangs: Your CIS Championship MVP: Kelly Campbell! #PuprleReign pic.twitter.com/aCEoaLSRaM" Congratulations Kelly! Way to go!
— Amit Chakma (@PresWesternU) March 16, 2015
“There’s no way to describe this feeling,” she said. “We’ve worked so hard as a team over the past year and we have the team behind me, I knew we had it the entire time and to get this win against McGill is incredible.”
While Campbell played stellar in net, Western’s offence came from five different goal scorers with Anthea Lasis, Ally Galloway, Stacey Scott, Kendra Broad and Casey Rosen each recording a goal.
The defending champion Marlets controlled the play throughout the opening half of the first period, however it was the Mustangs who were first on the board as Lasis scored a power play goal on a low shot from the point to give Western a 1-0 lead.
Western extended that lead early in the second as Kipfer drove the net before getting the puck across to Galloway who made it 2-0 for the Purple and White. Less than three minutes later Scott added another goal for the Mustangs and chased starting netminder Taylor Hough in favour of Brittany Smrke.
Despite seeing a new face in net Western’s offence didn’t back down as Kendra Broad kept the puck on a two-on-one going high on the shortside to give the Mustangs a four goal lead midway through the period.
Although the Martlets continued to press in the final frame, Rosen finished things off with an empty netter to give Western a 5-0 win and their first-ever national title.
Three Mustangs were named to the tournament all-star team with Campbell, Katelyn Gosling, and Kendra Broad all earning spots.