EDMONTON - For the 24th consecutive season, the Pandas have clinched their spot in the Canada West Semifinal. 

Halle Oswald stopped all 12 shots she faced, as the Pandas earned a 2-0 win in Game 2 of their quarter-final series, sweeping the Regina Cougars at Clare Drake Arena. 

Payton Laumbach scored her second goal of the series in the opening period, while Taylor Anker iced the victory with an empty netter in the dying seconds. 

The third-seeded Pandas will now advance to play the second-place UBC Thunderbirds next weekend in a best-of-three semifinal series. UBC won both of their regular season meetings in Vancouver earlier this season. 

After dropping a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in Game 1, in which they gave up the game-winner with under three minutes left in regulation, the visiting Cougars came out of the gates strong in the first. The Cougars fired seven shots towards Oswald, who was forced to be sharp in the opening 20 minutes. 

Cougars starter Arden Kliewer stopped four of the five shots she faced, with her only blemish Laumbach's shot with just over a minute left in the first. Laumbach picked off a D-to-D pass in the Cougars zone, before beating Kliewer with a wrister from the slot. 

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Another goal this series for Payton Laumbach!!

She picks off the D-to-D pass from the Cougars, and snipes in her second goal this weekend! https://t.co/dgRWKpJqf7 pic.twitter.com/qQFhAw2o5L

— UofA Pandas Hockey (@PandasHockey) February 27, 2022

Neither team generated much offence in the second, with Kliewer forced to make eight stops to keep the Cougars within one. 

Oswald made a pair of saves in the second, and three in the third, as the Pandas completley locked down the Cougars attack, dominating puck possesion. 

Anker sealed the Pandas win with a 170-foot empty netter with 21 seconds left in the third.