Patterson pots three to send Trojans to post-season

OLDS, ALTA., (Feb. 20, 2020) - The SAIT Trojans women's hockey team is playoff bound.

In their penultimate game of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) regular season, they received three goals from forward Kelsey Patterson as they beat the host Olds College Broncos 4-2 to clinch the fourth and final post-season berth available.

"Honestly, the girls wanted it bad, but we just went out there and kept it calm and not desperate," said Trojans captain Tashel Scantlebury (5th year, Foxwarren, Man., Community Economic Development). "We just played our game, and even when we were down, not one person on our bench had doubt."

SAIT sees their record move to 6-16-1, while Olds falls to 4-16-3 and is officially eliminated from playoff contention with the final game of the regular season for both teams coming Saturday night at SAIT at 7pm.

"Getting the win tonight was our only goal, and we achieved it as a team. There were no passengers," Scantlebury added. "We have some breathing room Saturday, and we're going to celebrate tonight, but we're still going to come out hard in that last game as we prepare for a playoff run."

SAIT found themselves down 2-1 after one period of play thanks to goals from Olds College's Karli Frederick and Kali Cummings.

Karys Woodward (2nd year, Calgary, Business Administration) scored the lone Trojans goal of the period on the power play.

From there, it was all Patterson (2nd year, Castlegar, BC, Civil Engineering Technology). She scored once in the second to tie the game, and then twice in the third to send her team to the post-season. Her third of the night was shot into an empty net with just one second remaining in the game.

The three markers now puts the second-year forward into a tie for first place in goals (13) with NAIT's Megan Leblanc.

"I imagine the bus will be buzzing and there won't be a single person sleeping on the way home," Scantlebury finished. "It's fun to be able to enjoy this with this bunch of girls."

The Trojans will open the post-season as underdogs, as they take on the three-timer defending champion, and No. 1 seed, MacEwan Griffins in the first round. Game 1 is set for next Thursday night in Edmonton.

The last time SAIT made the playoffs was in the 2016-17 season where they were the also No. 4 seed, but upset the first-ranked NAIT Ooks to reach the championship final. Once there, they were beaten 2-0 in the best-of-three final by the Griffins.