CALGARY – A three-goal second period, and 38-saves from Kelly Campbell, led the Western Mustangs to their first-ever CIS Women's Hockey Championship title with a 5-0 win over the McGill Martlets on Sunday night at the Markin MacPhail Centre.
 
Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice/index
 
"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 Western head coach Chris Higgins.

"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." 
 
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 consecutive shutout and earning tournament MVP honours after only allowing one goal on 94 shots in three games.

"She did let in one goal this tournament," Higgins joked. "What's there to say about her, I mean she's just, she intimidates the other teams. You could see it, they were trying to go top shelf. They just weren't shooting at the net they were trying to pick the smallest corners. She's unbelievable, and the girls in front of her, there are no rebounds. She kicked one out we got it out of the zone. It's one of the best games I've seen [as far as] clearing the puck out of our zone all season. We got the puck to a winger and out."

"There's no way to describe this feeling," said Campbell. "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 Tia 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.

While any championship victory is one to be savoured, this one was perhaps especially sweet for Madison Turk, who finishes out her career with not only a championship in her final game, but doing so in her hometown of Calgary and noting that "…a lot of [the Mustangs fans in Calgary] came for me so this is incredible to have everyone here. A lot of these people haven't seen me play hockey since I was a tyke so it's so exciting, I can't believe it."

With the majority of the Mustangs eligible to return next season, many of the players on this year's roster will begin defending their title this coming October, however for the players that are leaving they couldn't have asked for a better final moment wearing the purple and white.

"This is a big family," said Gosling. "We had a meeting before and we all just broke down because we realized this is the last game we were going to spend together as a group so I think we're all happy the way we went out." 

TOURNAMENT HONOURS

Championship MVP: Kelly Campbell, Western

All-Tournament Team:
Goaltender: Kelly Campbell, Western
Defenceman: Katelyn Gosling, Western
Defenceman: Kelsie Moffatt, McGill
Forward: Kendra Broad, Western
Forward: Gabrielle Davidson, McGIll
Forward: Alex Normore, St. FX

SCORING SUMMARY
 
FIRST PERIOD
 
1. WES Anthea Lasis (2) (Ally Galloway, Kendra Broad), 12:19 PP
 
PENALTIES:
 
Rosen (WES) tripping, 2:34;
Taylor (WES) hooking, 6:14;
Serpico (MCG) body checking, 12:09;
Beres (WES) roughing, 14:11;
Moffatt (MCG) interference, 19:18.

SECOND PERIOD
 
2. WES Ally Galloway (1) (Tia Kipfer), 2:48
3. WES Stacey Scott (2) (Cassidy Gosling), 5:15
4. WES Kendra Broad (2) (unassisted), 9:42

PENALTIES:
 
Oles (MCG) body checking, 14:33;
Oles (MCG) unsportsmanlike conduct, 20:00.
 
THIRD PERIOD
 
5. WES Casey Rosen (2) (Brianna Iazzolino, Cassidy Gosling), 19:02 PP
PENALTIES:
 
Clement-Heydra (MCG) hooking, 18:03.
 
GOALS (by period)
WES 1-3-1: 5
MCG 0-0-0: 0

SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
WES 4-7-4: 15
MCG 17-14-7: 38

POWER PLAY:
WES 2-5
MCG 0-3

GOALTENDERS
WES – Kelly Campbell (W, 3-0, 38 shots, 38 saves, 0 GA, 60:00)
MCG – Taylor Hough (L, 2-1, 7 shots, 4 saves, 3 GA, 25:15), Brittany Smirk (8 shots, 6 saves, 2 GA, 31:50)

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
WES: Kendra Broad
MCG: Katia Clement-Heydra
REFEREE: Melanie Bordeleaux
 
LINESMEN: Erica Holmes, Ciana Lieffers
 
ATTENDANCE: 652
 
START: 6:16
END: 8:38
LENGTH: 2:22
 
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times MOUNTAIN TIME)
 
Thursday, March 12
15:00 Quarter-final 1: StFX 4, Guelph 3
19:00 Quarter-final 2: McGill 8, Calgary 2
 
Friday, March 13
11:00 Consolation 1: Guelph 4, Calgary 2
15:00 Quarter-final 3: Western 3, Moncton 1
19:00 Quarter-final 4: Montreal 4, Alberta 3
 
Saturday, March 14
11:00 Consolation 2: Moncton 4, Alberta 1
15:00 Semifinal 1: McGill 1, StFX 0
18:30 Semifinal 2: Western 2, Montreal 0
 
Sunday, March 15
11:00 5th-place game: Guelph 4, Moncton 1
14:30 Bronze medal: Montreal 2, St.FX 1
18:00 Final : Western 5, McGill 0