Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

SASKATOON, Sask. – An early goal from Saskatchewan Huskies defenceman Mallory Dyer stood up as the winner in a hard-fought goaltender battle on Friday night.

MacEwan's Brianna Sank stopped 30 of 31 shots, but was eclipsed by counterpart Camryn Drever, who made 18 saves for a shutout as the Huskies blanked the Griffins 2-0.

Sophie Lalor hit an empty net with 38 seconds left to seal the result.

"They capitalized on one our mistakes," said MacEwan head coach Chris Leeming. "Other than that, we played a great game overall, I thought. 

"I thought Sank had a strong showing to keep us in the game, as well."

Dyer scored the winner on a semi-breakaway 4:01 into the game, but the Huskies couldn't solve Sank after that.

"She was solid," said Leeming. "I think we did a good job in our D zone. They had a couple Grade A scoring chances, but a lot of shots were from the outside. 

"Obviously, she made a couple key saves for us tonight, but we also blocked a lot of shots. It was a huge credit to our defensive zone play. They got an empty-netter to get that second goal."

With the result, MacEwan falls to 3-19-1 and Saskatchewan improves to 15-4-2 in the Canada West standings.

The Griffins had some opportunities to beat Drever – most notably chances by Jesse Jack, Kori Paterson, Allee Isley and Rian Santos – but ultimately made life too easy on her, said Leeming.

"We challenged them to get traffic to the net and I don't think we had too many shots with traffic in front of their goalie today," he said. "We made it a little bit easier on her. That's what we'll be looking for a little bit more of tomorrow."

The teams will meet again on Saturday (4 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).