Griffins lose all three in home exhibition tourney, regroup for next weekend

MacEwan Griffins goaltender Sandy Heim stares down University of Alberta Pandas forward Hannah Olenyk during a match last Friday at the Downtown Community Arena (Len Joudrey photo).
MacEwan Griffins goaltender Sandy Heim stares down University of Alberta Pandas forward Hannah Olenyk during a match last Friday at the Downtown Community Arena (Len Joudrey photo).
Posted: Sep 17, 2017

MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – It wasn't exactly the weekend they drew up when heading into their own tournament.

The Griffins women's hockey team lost all three of their contests in the MacEwan University Open at the Downtown Community Arena.

On Friday, the defending ACAC champions met the defending U Sports national champion Alberta Pandas and suffered a 5-0 setback. Alex Pozinkoff netted a hat-trick and added an assist to pace the Pandas, who went undefeated during the tourney – also beating NAIT 3-2 in a shootout and Regina 3-0.

On Saturday, the Griffins played their best game of the tourney but fell 1-0 to Canada West team Regina. Mackenzie Hutchinson scored the lone goal of the game for the Cougars in their only win of the weekend, while first-year goalie Natalie Bender stopped 33 of 34 shots for the Griffins.

On Sunday, MacEwan met ACAC foe NAIT, who had knocked off Regina 2-1 on Friday. With a goal and an assist, Livia Lucova paced the Ooks to a 3-1 win over the Griffins. Dominique Scheurer scored MacEwan's lone goal of the weekend in the contest.

The Griffins will now head east to Saskatoon next weekend for another exhibition tournament hosted by the University of Saskatchewan.

MacEwan's Morgan Casson battles against Alberta's Amy Boucher last Friday (Len Joudrey photo).

MacEwan head coach Lindsay McAlpine, standing second from left, and her staff man the bench against the Alberta Pandas last Friday (Len Joudrey photo).

MacEwan's Raven Beazer tries to dig the puck out of the corner amid a pile of Alberta players last Friday (Len Joudrey photo).

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