The Lakeland College Rustlers women’s hockey team kicked off the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) regular season on a high note, raising their championship banner from last year before sweeping their opening weekend series against the Northwestern Polytechnic (NWP) Wolves with a dominant 7-0 shutout and a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
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The Rustlers set the tone early in the weekend series opener on October 17, 2026, overcoming an early deficit to edge the Wolves 2-1. After NWP’s Paige Cheek opened the scoring on a power play in the first period, Lakeland mounted a third-period comeback.
Kyla Benjamin tied the game at 3:41 of the final frame, and Kylie Perry netted the game-winner at 12:03, lifting the Rustlers ahead while goaltender Lauren Cherkas stopped 15 of 16 shots.
Lakeland followed up with an offensive explosion, blanking the Wolves 7-0 in a dominant statement win. Goaltender Schay Camphaug turned aside all 20 shots she faced to earn the shutout, backed by a relentless 41-shot offensive barrage.
The Rustlers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening ten minutes behind goals from Benjamin, Marly Dumanski, and a power-play marker from Perry.
The pressure continued into the second frame with tallies from Keyra Buziak, Ashlyn Hinton, and a power-play goal by Payton Farkash, before Bria Hull sealed the 7-0 final with an unassisted goal in the third.
With the pair of victories and the celebration of last season’s championship banner, the Rustlers establish early momentum as the ACAC regular season gets underway.
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