Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
LAC LA BICHE, Alta. – Just three weeks after losing twice to the Briercrest College Clippers, the MacEwan Griffins found themselves trailing early in the second period on Friday night to the other current non-playoff team in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference men's hockey standings.
That's when their veteran line of Cam Gotaas, Bryan Arneson and Nicolas Correale took over, leading the charge to what would end up being a 9-2 win for the Griffins over the Portage College Voyageurs.
MacEwan erased a 2-1 deficit with eight unanswered goals over the final 35 minutes in improving to 18-6-1-0, while dropping the Voyageurs to 0-23-2-0.
"I think it was credit to our captain and our veteran line," said head coach Mike Ringrose. "Early in the second period, they put a few shifts together – Arneson, Gotaas and Correale. We were pretty flat coming out after the first. Cam and those two on his wing really put together a couple of good shifts to give us some life and energy. After that, I thought our offence got going. … We needed that spark and they provided it to us – good leadership."
After that, the all-rookie trio of Zach Webb, Colin Schmidt and Jordan Taupert got rolling, combining for seven points.
"I thought the line of Webb, Schmidt and Taupert was very, very good," said Ringrose. "Three first year guys who really pushed the pace all night and generated some nice opportunities, finished a few off. Collectively, especially in the second half of the game, they drove our offence."
Webb had a goal and two assists, Schmidt had a goal and a helper and Taupert added two apples.
They were just a few of several MacEwan players with multi-point nights as Cameron Reagan recorded a goal and three helpers, Andrew Kartusch had two goals and an assist, Correale produced a goal and an assist, and both Gotaas and Arneson produced two helpers.
Shane Sherban opened the scoring for Portage 12:22 into the first period before Zach Aston's powerplay marker drew MacEwan level at the first intermission.
After David Pryde restored the Voyageurs' lead 4:50 into the second period, Correale's equalizer just 14 seconds later opened the floodgates. Webb scored the game-winner with 8:54 left in the second period before Chase Miller made it 4-2 just 44 seconds later.
Kartusch scored back-to-back goals to open the third period before Schmidt, Ryan Mckinnon and Reagan finished off the onslaught.
"Karts did a good job getting pucks through from the point," said Ringrose of the ACAC's rookie of the year last season. "Both goals he got were just great shots through from the point with traffic.
"Something we've really focused on over the last couple of weeks is getting bodies to the net and making sure that we make it difficult for opposing goaltenders to pick those pucks up because we do have some guys who have the ability to get pucks through to the net. Karts is one of them."
MacEwan's Marc-Olivier Daigle stopped 25 of 27 shots sent his way, while Taryn Kotchorek made 34 saves for Portage.
The teams will meet in the rematch on Saturday (6 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, ACAC TV).
