Griffins blank Olds for second-straight game to improve ACAC-leading record

Jessi Rampton fires a shot on the Olds goal on Friday. She finished with a goal and an assist to pace the Griffins to a 4-0 win over the Broncos (Len Joudrey photo).
Jessi Rampton fires a shot on the Olds goal on Friday. She finished with a goal and an assist to pace the Griffins to a 4-0 win over the Broncos (Len Joudrey photo).

Declan Riley / For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – The Griffins shut out the Olds Broncos for a second-straight night as Jessi Rampton scored her first goal of the season and netminder Natalie Bender had an exemplary performance for her fourth goose-egg of the campaign in a 4-0 victory in ACAC women's hockey action Friday.

"Feels Good! January, first goal, wasn't really what I wanted… It was nice to come back and finally get one," said Rampton.

The Griffins opened the scoring early with a power play goal from Kyrelle Skoye, her second of the season at 16:43.

Shortly thereafter, Rampton tapped in her tally on a passing play from Kennedy Davidson and Carley Jewell, extending their lead to 2-0 just five minutes into the first period.

The Griffins' strong play continued into the second as they had multiple chance on Olds goalie Jaydlin Spooner. Eventually, at 8:41, they struck again with another goal from Skoye.

At 11:14 in the third period, the Griffins struck again on the power play, with a goal from Dominique Scheurer with assist from Nikki Reimer, to give the Griffins a 4-0 stranglehold on the contest.

From there, the Griffins grabbed the reigns on the Broncos, so to speak, and controlled the rest of the Friday game. Olds, obviously frustrated, started to get chatty after many whistles, stopping the Griffins to talk, perhaps just seeing how everyone's Christmas was.

Bender stopped all 17 shots from the Broncos and improved her league-leading save percentage to .983. Spooner made 44 saves in defeat.

With MacEwan sweeping Olds – following a 3-0 win on Thursday – they run their season record over them to 3-0-1.

"I think the girls executed the game plan exactly as we set it out," said MacEwan head coach Lindsay McAlpine.

With the win, MacEwan improves to a league-leading 10-1-3 record, while Olds falls to 4-11-1.