MacEwan Athletics
LAC LA BICHE – Tyler Mrkonjic continued his post-holiday tear by scoring twice, while fellow rookie Brett Smythe had a goal and two assists as the MacEwan Griffins beat the Portage College Voyageurs 4-1 on Saturday night.
Mrkonjic now has two goals and seven assists in four games since the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season resumed after Christmas break.
"Mrkonjic's been very dynamic since we've got back from the break," said Griffins interim head coach Michael Ringrose. "He's really turned it up a notch."
The former Calgary Hitmen forward, who is fourth in scoring on the Griffins this season with 15 points in 18 games, was joined in the multi-point group by Smythe, who regained the team lead in scoring with a goal and two assists (now with 20 points in 18 games).
Nolan Yaremchuk, with a goal and an assist, and Taylor Bilyk (two helpers) also had big impacts.
Smythe opened the scoring just 1:33 into the contest, beating Portage's Garret Montour.
"Brett got a nice one in the offensive zone after Nolan Yaremchuk did a little bit of heavy lifting in the corner," said Ringrose. "He put himself in a nice spot and he made a play on Nolan's goal to reciprocate."
That one came before the end of the first period, but Portage would cut the lead in half on Lane VandeWetering's tally at 14:20 of the second period.
Mrkonjic, though, scored twice in the third to put it away and complete a weekend sweep for the Griffins.
MacEwan (12-6-0) now sits third in the ACAC standings, a point behind Red Deer College (12-5-1-0). Portage (2-14-1-1) is last in the table, four points back of the final playoff spot.
"It's pretty easy in these weekends to take a look at the standings and think it's going to be easy, but their team has an identity that they work and push teams all the time, so you need to be prepared to do the work," said Ringrose. "Nothing's given, you have to earn everything and I thought we did a good job of that this weekend."
Next up for the Griffins is a home-and-home series against cross-town rival NAIT (Friday, 7 p.m., Downtown Community Arena and Saturday, 6 p.m., NAIT Arena).
It's a rematch of last season's ACAC Championship, won 2-1 by the Griffins. NAIT is leading the ACAC with a 15-1-1-1 record.
