COUGARS CRUISING
Led by stellar netminders, Mount Royal atop ACAC
There’s no truth to the suggestion that to play goal for the Mount Royal University women’s hockey team one has to be enrolled in criminal justice.
“Evidently, it’s turned out that way,’’ chuckled Cougars’ head coach Scott Rivett. “I thought we were unique with two of them, then all of a sudden Jess Ross went into that program this year, so now we have all three. We have anything but typical goaltenders.’’
“It’s kind of weird in a way,’’ admitted Kendall Kilgour. “I don’t know how we all ended up in it, really.’’
The MRU netminders — Kilgour, Jessica Ross and Leanne Pfliger — are in the same academic program, which means they spend pretty much most of their days in close, on and off the ice. On the ice, two of them — Pfliger hasn’t played this year for an injury — are a key reason for the 13-4-2 position — tops in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference — in which the Cougars find themselves as the regular season winds down.
A busy MRU, with a Thursday night game in Red Deer, hosts the Queens on Friday night and plays a makeup game at home on Sunday afternoon versus NAIT.
Kilgour, a third-year from High River, and the rookie Ross have split duties between the Cougar pipes. In her nine games, the former sports a minuscule 1.22 goals-against average, while the latter, in 10 appearances, has a 1.59 mark.
“Everyone wants to play the most minutes they can,’’ admitted Kilgour, “but this way we’re pushing each other harder because we both know we have the strength to play. If one is having an off night, the other can step in. It pushes us to compete against each other more and we’re friends so it’s a good competitiveness to have.’’
“You get to focus on what you need to do, knowing that you’re going to get your time in there,’’ added Ross, “and also knowing that the other goalie on the team can make a huge impact on the games. It’s a good system we’ve got going on. The team makes it easy for us on most nights. The goaltender stats are a whole defensive effort.’’
Ross came from the University of Calgary, where she was injured and thus didn’t use up any eligibility, and redshirted for MRU last year.
“With the exception of one weekend when one of them was sick, they’ve both split every game this year,’’ Rivett pointed out. “They’ve both played very well, they challenge each other in practice and in games, they have a great relationship and they both give our team an opportunity to win on any given night.
“Lea hasn’t had the year she was hoping to continue to build on, but she’s been a great teammate and if the opportunity arose if we had to use her in goal, she would do a tremendous job for us. Another great kid and another great goaltender in our program.’’
And he’s not talking criminal justice. “If she (Ross) needs help, she can always come and get it,’’ noted Kilgour, who works as a youth counsellor at Hull Services, along with Pfliger. “With Leanne, we have classes together. It’s fun having her in my classes and having Ross following up behind us, as well.’’
“Those two are great,’’ conceded Ross, who plans on becoming a police officer. “If you have any questions, if you have a certain prof that you don’t know how they mark, they help you out. I’ve definitely saved a bit of money on textbooks because I just buy ‘em from them!’’