Declan Riley / For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The MacEwan Griffins lost a heart-breaker 5-4 to the visiting Red Deer College Kings when Jacob Wozney scored the winner with 20 seconds left in three-on-three double overtime on Friday night at the Downtown Community Arena.
After a major scoring chance, the Griffins found themselves three deep in the offensive zone leaving Wozney wide open by the Griffins' blue line. With a quick pass, he cruised in and dangled past Marc-Olivier Daigle for the winner.
"Yeah, we let one slip away there," said Griffins forward Brett Njaa, who was named player of the game for MacEwan after producing two goals and an assist. "We knew this was a big game and there's not really an excuse.
"We have to forget about it now. It's a quick turnaround, like every weekend. We got to get ready to go tomorrow and get two points."
The teams will play again on Saturday night (7 p.m., Penhold Multiplex, ACAC TV) as the battle for positioning in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference continues. RDC (15-5-1-0) now leads MacEwan (13-7-1-0) by four points for second place in the standings.
Njaa opened the scoring at 14:27 of the first period, driving the net and beating Kings goalie Troy Trombley by sneaking the black rubber under his pad.
The Kings quickly responded two minutes later when Tyrell Mappin scored a controversial goal in front as the net was dislodged. The Griffins swallowed their pride and went back to work.
By this point in the season, we've come to understand that the Griffins are rarely satisfied with a tied game, and at 7:24 Captain Ryan Benn took it upon himself to fix things, with a blast from the point on the powerplay, to give them a 2-1 lead.
With only a minute to go in the first period, Nolan Yaremchuk incepted a breakout pass and slipped past all the Kings, snapping a pass across the crease to Brett Smythe, who buried it for his 12th goal of the season and a 3-1 lead. He was levelled into the boards afterwards, drawing a big scrum.
The second period opened with hits from every direction as both teams went in and out of the penalty box.
At 9:36, Arie Postmus scored for the Kings on a passing play beside the net before Damien Kulynych's sharp shot on the powerplay at 4:48 beat Daigle to tie the game 3-3.
With just over a minute to play in the middle frame, Sean McTavish was high-sticked and the Griffins found themselves on a four-minute powerplay.
"The message is just the process," said MacEwan interim head coach of the talk in the room before trying to capitalize on the remaining 2:36 of the power play that spilled into the third period. "Just talking about what we are going out there to do and how we're going to execute what they're doing and where the openings are going to be.
"There's no 'ra ra' speech, it's just about x's and o's"
Njaa responded, jamming the puck home a minute-and-a-half into the third to restore MacEwan's lead. They appeared to go up 5-3 with 10 minutes left, but the shot was deemed to have been tipped in with a high stick.
Both teams continued to battle hard, but with just 1:18 left in the game, Red Deer winger David Baer, stepped into a shot and blasted a knuckle puck past goaltender Daigle, to tie it up.
MacEwan managed to kill off an RDC powerplay in the first overtime before falling in the second.
Trombley made 38 saves in the win for the Kings, while Daigle stopped 35 for the Griffins.
Tyler Mrkonjic added two assists for the Griffins to continue his hot month of play (now with two goals and 13 points in his last seven games), while fifth-year captain Ryan had a goal and an assist.
RDC player of the game Wozney not only had the winning goal, but he added three assists.
