The University of Regina's women's hockey team lost to the Trinity Western Spartans 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at the Co-operators Centre.
 
Trinity Western forward Olivia Leier scored two goals to lead the Spartans to their first ever Canada West regulation win. Lauren Focht scored two goals for the Cougars, just a day after scoring her first career Canada West goal. Cougars fifth-year forward Lilla Carpenter-Boesch scored a goal and added two assists for a game-high three points.
 
In the first period, Leier scored her first goal of the season by finding the puck in a scramble and putting it in the back of the net. With under five minutes left in the period, the Cougars got a power play opportunity. While on the penalty kill, Trinity Western forward Chloe Reid got the puck and burst through the Cougars defense for a breakaway. The defense caught up to her and prevented her from getting a good shot but teammate Jordyn Matthews put home the rebound for a short-handed goal. Only 19 seconds later, Cougars forward Lauren Focht scored on the same power play opportunity to make it 2-1 heading into the first intermission.
 
Seven minutes into the second, Carpenter-Boesch found Focht all alone in front of the net to score her second goal and second power play goal of the game. Trinity Western answered four minutes later when Leier scored her second goal by cleaning up a rebound in front of the net. That prompted the Cougars to pull starting goaltender Katie Crowther and replace her with Arden Kliewer. With less than two minutes left in the frame, Spartans forward Kailey Ledoux got the puck at her own blue line and carried it all the way down to and around the Cougars net for a wrap-around goal. That would stand as the eventual game winning goal. Cougars held a 25-12 shot advantage after two periods of play.
 
12 minutes into the third, Cougars forward Jordyn Blais took a wrist shot from the point that was saved off the blocker by Spartans goalie Mabel Maltias. Carpenter-Boesch got to the rebound first and put it away to cut it to a one goal game. The Cougars had several good chances to tie the game but time expired before they were able to complete the comeback.
 
Maltais made 30 saves for the Spartans to secure her first win of the season. Crowther and Kliewer made five and nine saves for the Cougars, respectively.
 
The Cougars travel to Calgary next weekend to take on the Dinos in a two-game series. Trinity Western heads home to host the MacEwan Griffins in their own two-game series next weekend.