Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Darned if Saturday's rematch against UBC didn't follow the same script as the night before.
The Griffins men's hockey team played right with the U SPORTS No. 2 Thunderbirds for two periods, only to again surrender four third-period goals, losing this time by a 7-2 count.
Although, they were only outscored only 4-3 in the first 40 minutes of both games, the Griffins were beaten 8-1 in the two third periods of their weekend series.
"I think it's maybe a lack of experience, maybe guys who can't handle the pressure of being in a hockey game against a good team," said head coach Zack Dailey. "I think our expectations as a group need to change. We need to expect more out of ourselves. Being close isn't good enough. We need to make sure we're giving full efforts, so that's something we're going to have to figure out as a group."
With the result, the T'Birds remain undefeated and on top of Canada West with a 10-0-0 record, while MacEwan remains seventh with a 2-7-1 mark so far.
As they did in Friday's 5-2 defeat, the Griffins opened the scoring in the first period as Kadyn Chabot broke around the defence on the powerplay and beat Cole Schwebius 5:30 into the game.
UBC didn't even register a shot until they tied the contest at 7:55 when Scott Atkinson's initial shot was stopped by Thomas Davis, but he banked the rebound off his back and in from behind the goal-line.
Sam Huo had all day to pick a corner on Davis just over three minutes later to put UBC up 2-1, but they hadn't even finished announcing that goal when MacEwan equalized 47 seconds later – as Vincent Scott one-timed a pass from Sam Simard past Schwebius.
Even though UBC went up 3-2 in the second period on Liam Kindree's tally, the Griffins were very much in the game through 40 minutes. Jordan Taupert was stopped on a breakaway midway through the frame that would have tied things up again.
"We did a good job for the most part being physical," said Dailey of one strategy that paid off. "They're a very skilled, fast hockey team, so we were trying to slow them down with some physical play. I thought our commitment to blocking shots was pretty good as well for stretches. Defensive zone looked a little better at times, at times, not so much.
"There's some stuff to build off of, but it's just a disappointing way to end a pretty good effort against a really good hockey team."
Indeed, the Griffins' fine early effort was undone again by sloppy play in the final frame. UBC jumped all over them with four unanswered goals from Jonny Lambos, Sasha Mutala, Huo again and Conner McDonald in less than 13 minutes.
Huo stretched his Canada West scoring lead (18 points in 10 games) with a four-point night (2g, 2a) to pace the Thunderbirds.
Davis made 25 saves for the Griffins, while Schwebius stopped 19 for the Thunderbirds.
Dailey's biggest takeaway from the weekend is there will be some changes.
"I think the accountability piece is something I'm going to have to stress a bit more," he said. "There's stuff that's happening that I don't like, and I have to make sure I'm addressing it. If it needs to be guys missing shifts, if it needs to be guys missing games, that's my job to make sure I'm holding people accountable.
"So, I need to do a better job of that and making sure our expectation is not to just be close, it's to finish games."
