Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The MacEwan Griffins built an early 4-0 lead before overcoming a second-period wobble and some rough play to post a 6-3 victory over the SAIT Trojans in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference men's hockey action on Friday night.
The result is exactly what the Griffins were looking for after back-to-back losses to Briercrest in their last outing before their bye week 13 days ago.
With the win, MacEwan (16-6-1-0) has put five points between them and SAIT (12-7-1-3) for third place in the standings, while staying in contention with Red Deer College (16-5-2-0) for second.
"I thought it was a little bit of a sloppy game from both teams," said Griffins head coach Michael Ringrose. "We were able to do enough right in the first 10 minutes to build ourselves a lead and we were able to ride that.
"I didn't like our second period much. I thought we responded well in the third and cleaned up our game a little bit and got the points we needed."
Captain Cam Gotaas led the way for the Griffins with two goals and two assists, while rookie Joseph Karpyshyn also scored twice.
"Cam's our leader for a reason," said Ringrose. "He didn't like our second period. I didn't like it; he didn't like it and he came out and he was determined to be a difference-maker in the third and he was."
Karpyshyn got things started on the right foot for MacEwan, taking a Ryan McKinnon pass in the slot and wiring the opening goal past Kyle Dumba just 2:09 into the contest. He then made it 2-0 10:10 into the proceedings with his 11th of the season when he cleaned up the garbage on the back side after Colin Schmidt created havoc in the crease.
"Joe's a guy, especially in the second half here who seems to be finding the net more and more as he gains confidence," said Ringrose. "He's got such a great shot. Give him an opportunity and he's going to score."
Bryan Arneson put the Griffins up 3-0 before the first period was out with a highlight-reel tally as he drove wide around a defender, turned his body to shield the puck and one-handed it under the bar.
"Obviously, Mike was talking about it all week long – getting a good start on these guys – and we're happy we did that," said Karpyshyn.
Gotaas then scored the eventual game winner 4:35 into the second period when the puck squirted off the side boards on a broken play to him in the slot and he wired it past Dumba.
SAIT hit back with two goals in just over two-and-a-half minutes – rebound tallies by Joren Patenaude and Mark Drohan – to make a game out of it.
The Griffins had a good intermission meeting and came out of their funk in the third.
"It was good," said Karpyshyn. "I think the boys knew that we had to play smart, we had to play safe. We had to get pucks in when there were turnovers. And honestly, just discipline. We were taking a few too many penalties at the end. They're a good team on the powerplay."
Kole Gable and Cory Santoro traded goals for the teams before Gotaas leapt around a defender for a short-handed breakaway empty-net tally that put the game to bed.
SAIT landed a whopping 35 minutes in penalties in the contest to MacEwan's 12, but 20 of those were a double 10-minute misconduct assessed to Parker Evans-Campbell, who was tossed out with 4:17 left for checking to the head and then verbal harassment of the official.
Dumba finished with 31 saves for SAIT, while Marc-Olivier Daigle made 37 for MacEwan.
With RDC also winning on Friday (5-3 over Portage), the Griffins remain a point back of the Kings for second place in the standings and the first-round playoff bye that comes with it. That's certainly a focus for them with five games left, including Saturday's rematch in Calgary at SAIT (7 p.m., ACAC TV), but playoff seeding takes a back seat to the state of their game.
"For us, it's just about making sure we're playing our best hockey when it matters most," said Ringrose. "Would it be great to get the bye? Absolutely. Without a doubt, it's something we'd like to have, but more important than that, we want to make sure our game is where we want it to be when hockey starts for real here in the playoffs."
