Declan Riley / For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Cameron Gotaas and Brett Njaa had exemplary performances, each scoring twice, as the MacEwan Griffins topped the visiting UAlberta-Augustana Vikings 4-3 on Friday night at the Downtown Community Arena in a huge late-season battle for playoff positioning.
With the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference post-season rapidly approaching and both teams tied with 33 points heading into the contest, it had the feel of a playoff affair.
"Every game is so important," said MacEwan interim head coach Michael Ringrose. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to take a look at the standings and recognize that we're in a dogfight for that second (place) bye.
"Every game from here till the end of the season – regardless of our opponent – becomes that much more important and tonight we found a way to win a game where didn't start the way we wanted."
That they did, winning their fourth straight to improve to 17-7-1-0 in the standings and move into second place in the ACAC. The Vikings fall to 15-7-3-0 and are in fifth, even though they're only two points back. In between are Red Deer College (16-7-2-0) – who shockingly lost to non-playoff team Portage 7-4 on Friday – and SAIT (15-6-3-1), who earned a point for losing in overtime, 4-3, to league-leader NAIT.
The Griffins and Vikings will meet again on Saturday (6 p.m., Encana Centre in Camrose).
On Friday, the visiting Vikings struck first – just 1:30 into the game – when Cody Fiala crashed the net hard and knocked goalie Christopher Wray into it while managing to sneak the puck across the line during the mayhem. The goal stood.
At 11:46, the Griffins roared back to life with Njaa scoring on a stretch play in the Vikings' end, for his 13th of the season.
But with 7:03 remaining in an eventful opening frame, the Vikings struck again, taking the lead back on a goal from Pat Thompson-Gale, who beat Wray on a deke that left us watching the puck trickle across the line.
Minutes later, though, Gotaas, on a passing play with Jacob Schofield, ripped the puck past UAA goalie Curtis Skip to tie the game.
But the Vikings were proving to be as hungry and as driven as the Griffins, scoring another go-ahead marker at 2:44 when Evan Warmington tucked the puck in the net after a tight passing play in front. That led to the hook for Wray, with Marc-Oliver Daigle coming on in relief.
The Griffins opened the second period strong with multiple chances in front of the Vikings' net; a clear reset after the first period.
With 9:32 left in the second, the Njaa show continued when he tied the contest off a powerplay give and go play with rookie Tyler Mrkonjic while breaking into the zone. That gives MacEwan's scoring leader 14 goals and 29 points on the season.
With less than five minutes left in the second, the Griffins took their first lead in the game when Gotaas converted off a beautiful passing play from Brett Smythe.
Three minutes into the third period, Smythe was hit hard from behind into the boards, giving the Griffins a powerplay that they built momentum off of. Though they didn't score, the onslaught of shots continued and Vikings were growing obviously more frustrated by the minute.
As the game wound down, UAA pulled Skip for the extra attacker, and put forth a flurry of activity in an attempt to tie the game.
With 53 seconds left, Daigle shot the puck over the glass, leading to a delay of game penalty and the Vikings were on the offensive with a two-man advantage. But the Griffins held strong and pulled off the win.
MacEwan outshot UAA 48-25 in the contest and won their third-straight against the Vikings this season, claiming the ever-important season series tiebreaker should the squads end up even in the standings when the regular season ends next weekend.
"We needed those two points, because were in a dogfight, if you look at the standings so it was huge for us," said Gotaas, who joined UAA's Warmington as the players of the game.
