Calgary, Alta – The Calgary Inferno have spent the past two weeks intensely training and preparing for the culmination of their season’s goal, the Clarkson Cup Final.

Only two teams in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) have survived the 24-game season and a best of three game playoff series to play in the final, winner-takes-all Clarkson Cup game on Sunday, March 13. The Calgary Inferno will take on Montreal Les Cannadiennes at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa at 2pm MT (live on Sportsnet).

“We know our opponent well now that we’ve played them quite a bit so we can zone in on what their tendencies are and adapt our game to defend better,” remarked the Inferno’s assistant coach Gina Kingsbury who is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist. “At the same time, it’s fun because it’s strategic and there’s a lot of prep that goes into it.”

“Everyone seems a bit more dialed in, we’ve had a really good couple practices and focusing on special teams which is important in playoffs,” said the Inferno captain Brianne Jenner.

Calgary strengthened their roster after the Christmas break, adding veteran defender Meaghan Mikkelson back in the lineup along with forward Rebecca Johnston.

Montreal has had a strong season, finishing with 42 points from 20 wins, 1 shoot out loss and three losses, two of which were delivered by the Inferno. Calgary finished in second place with 16 wins, one over time loss, one shoot out loss and six regulation losses. Both teams had strong representation on the leading stats lists. Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin topped the leading scorers in the league followed by teammates Ann-Sophie Bettez, Kim Deschenes and Caroline Quellette. Calgary’s Brianne Jenner was the closest to the top in seventh place and Elana Lovell rounded out the top 10. Three more of the Inferno, Jill Saulnier, Jessica Campbell and Brittany Esposito were in the top 15. The netminders are also tight between the posts. Montreal’s Charline Labonte finished the season at the top of the league with a 1.52 goals against average and Delayne Brian for Calgary finished fourth with 2.99 GAA.

Playoffs were much the same for both teams, Montreal won two straight games against the Toronto Furies to get their ticket to the final. The Brampton Thunder’s playoff hopes were crushed by Calgary in two straight games in Calgary the last weekend in February. So what does it come down to?

Both Jenner and Kingsbury shared the same sentiment on the team’s main job in the game against Montreal.

“We need to play a full 60 minutes and know that we can’t have any off shifts, they’re [Montreal] good at capitalizing on that so we need to take the game to them and keep them on their heals.”

 “It will be fast paced and a high skill level. It will be very rough at times, it will be two teams fighting for the Clarkson Cup so it will be a battle,” added Jenner when asked what type of hockey fans should expect. “It’s exciting with a playoff series, but having one final game will hopefully get some attention to the sport and some new fans that haven’t seen it before.”

“It’s the Stanley Cup of Women’s hockey so it’s all our dreams we’ve had little girls and the excitement that goes with that,” concluded Kingsbury.

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) and the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators (@Senators) announced a two-year agreement on January 25 that will see the Senators bring the CWHL’s Clarkson Cup Final to Ottawa and Canadian Tire Centre in both 2016 and 2017. The 2016 Clarkson Cup Final will be held from March 11-13 and will include the CWHL Awards Gala and CWHL Community Day events before culminating with the Clarkson Cup Final.