MacEwan Athletics
REGINA, Sask. – Giving up a Regina rally for the second-straight night after again taking an early lead, the MacEwan Griffins men's hockey team fell to a 5-1 defeat on Saturday, stretching their losing streak to nine in a row.
Despite outshooting the Cougars 42-39, the Griffins couldn't get more than one past Regina netminder Adam Evanoff even after opening the scoring on Marc Pasemko's power-play tally with 4:10 left in the first period.
"To me, the different was both net fronts," said Griffins interim head coach Zack Dailey. "They were able to limit our second opportunities by clearing rebounds and taking away sticks right in front of their net. On the flip side, they were able to get inside positioning on our D and be first to rebounds."
Regina took a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes on goals by Tyler Heidt and Bryce Platt before Eric Pearce and Eric Houk scored two more within a two-minute span midway through the third. Scott Mickoski hit an empty net with 1:39 left to seal the deal.
Ashton Abel made 34 saves for the Griffins.
The game wasn't without positives for the Griffins, in spite of the lopsided score.
"I liked our effort, we skated hard," said Dailey. "We did a good job of generating scoring chances. We need to work on capitalizing and getting to rebounds. Our penalty kill did a good job."
With the result, MacEwan falls to 6-14-0, while the Cougars improve to 7-11-2. Regina is now the team the Griffins are chasing for the final playoff spot in Canada West – (they're four points back) – after Manitoba (7-12-1) lost 7-0 to Mount Royal.
Next up for MacEwan is a home doubleheader against Trinity Western that is shaping up as a must-win for the Griffins.
"It will take belief and commitment," said Dailey of getting back in the playoff hunt. "We need to believe we can win, and we need to be committed to our game plan and controlling net fronts.
"Winning in this league is hard, every team is strong. We will learn from our mistakes, take away some positives and focus on the challenge next weekend."
