Declan Riley / For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Scoring twice in the span of 1:12 inside the final five minutes, the MacEwan Griffins rallied to beat the SAIT Trojans 5-3 in ACAC men's hockey action on Saturday night.
With 4:51 to go, Tyler Morrison tied the game at 3-3 on the power play, before Taylor Mulder rifled home his first goal in six games just over a minute later – a tally which would stand up as the game-winner.
Dallas Smith hit the empty net with 44 seconds left to seal MacEwan's victory.
"Feels good, gets the monkey off my back," said Mulder. "Especially with the fashion it was, game winning goal."
After losing 5-3 to the Trojans in Calgary on Friday night, the Griffins came out strong and hungry in the first period, eager to score first.
Captain Ryan Benn did just that just over four minutes into the contest, beating SAIT's Payton Lee.
The Trojans tied the game at 9:38 of the first when Zachary McNeill beat Marc-Olivier Daigle. Although, SAIT found itself in the penalty box for much of the rest of the period, they escaped the first with a lead when Patrick Martens scored short-handed at 2:43.
Cameron Gotaas tied the game for MacEwan at 14:20 of the second.
The water in the penalty box must have been extra cold, because much like the first period, for the rest of the second there was a steady stream of penalty box attendees from both teams.
After running into penalty trouble at the end of the middle frame, the Griffins started the third period down two men but managed to kill it off.
At 11:33, though, the Trojans broke the deadlock, when Boden Sigurdson gave SAIT the lead.
It wouldn't last as the Griffins rallied to earn a weekend split to move back ahead of SAIT in the standings. At 10-6-0-0, MacEwan sits third in the ACAC, a point back of Red Deer College for second and only ahead of UAlberta-Augustana and SAIT – who both also have 20 points – because they have more wins.
Next up for the Griffins is a home-and-home series against Portage (Jan. 12, 7 p.m., Downtown Community Arena and Jan. 13, 7 p.m., Lac La Biche).
ICE CHIPS ... Daigle made 41 saves for MacEwan, while Lee had 31 for SAIT ... Rookie Tyler Mrkonjic paced the Griffins with three assists ... Benn and Gotaas each had a goal and an assist.
