Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
-With files from MRU Athletics
CALGARY – Video will be watched to find out how Friday night's game got away from the MacEwan Griffins men's hockey team.
Then they'll flush it.
That's all they can do after losing 7-1 to the Mount Royal University Cougars in Canada West action at the Flames Community Arena.
"Tonight we were out-competed," said MacEwan head coach Mike Ringrose. "We lost our structure for large portions of the game. And we didn't have a lot go right.
"We're going to regroup, watch some video and tomorrow's a new day. We'll look to take a step forward against Calgary."
With the loss, their fifth in a row, the Griffins fall to 2-5-0 in the standings, while MRU improves to 5-2-0.
The game's first goal was scored just over a minute into the first period by Ethan Regnier. A wrister from between the two faceoff circles beat screened MacEwan goalie Ty Taylor over the right shoulder.
The Griffins responded just over halfway through the first, tying the game up 1-1 when Curtis Roach walked in from above the right faceoff circle, dangling around Riley Sims, who had come out of the crease to challenge.
After that it was all Cougars as Nolan Yaremko, Bradley Kennedy and Kyle Walker scored second period goals, chasing Taylor from the MacEwan net in favour of James Porter.
But the onslaught continued as Levi Kleiboer, Lane Gilliss an Yaremko again, put the Cougars up 7-1 before the final buzzer on an effort that saw them outshoot the Griffins 40-19.
"I think that it's a good lesson on the level of competitiveness that you need to play with the best programs at this level," said Ringrose. "Full credit to them. They deserved the two points tonight.
"We'll regroup. We get a fresh opponent tomorrow and that's unusual. It's a fresh start on the weekend and we'll go from there."
The Griffins will travel across town on Saturday to face the Calgary Dinos (4-3-0) at 6 p.m. (Canada West TV presented by Co-op).