Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – Playing toe-to-toe against the top team in the Canada West standings, the Griffins men's hockey team emerged with plenty of positives, even if they were unable to stop the Dinos' program-record 14-game winning streak, losing 7-5 on Friday night.
MacEwan held a 2-0 lead midway through the first period and, after losing it, twice fought back to tie the U SPORTS No. 2 Dinos, including knotting the game 4-4 entering the third period.
"For our first one back, I thought there were a lot of positives to take out of the game," said Griffins interim head coach Zack Dailey. "I thought we did a better job of creating offence and getting pucks and bodies to the net. I thought our powerplay looked good – we got a couple of goals on that with good possession and recovery.
"But at the end of the day, we ran out of gas in the third period. We started to sit back and give them time and space. Any time you give a team time and space, it's not going to work out for you."
Calgary scored three unanswered goals in the final frame to put the game out of reach.
With the result, the Dinos improved to 16-3-0 and stretched their lead atop the standings to three points. MacEwan dropped to 6-11-0, but caught a break when Regina thumped Manitoba 8-0, so the Griffins remain two points back of the final playoff spot.
After spending the final six games of the first semester icing just five healthy defencemen each night, the Griffins got some respite with the return of both Sean Comrie and Hunter Donohoe. Comrie led MacEwan with a goal and two assists, and had a team-high five shots on Friday.
"It was great to add him and Hunter back," said Dailey. "It just adds stability to our lineup. The guys who were playing minutes did a great job, but any time you're relying on five guys to do the job of six people, it doesn't really matter who it is, it's not going to go well. It was great to have six bodies back there who were able to contribute.
"Sean's a big part of our team, he's a leader, so any time he's in the lineup we're better off."
Merritt Oszytko, Neithan Salame, Kobe Mohr and Spencer McLean also scored for the Griffins, while Ashton Abel made 36 saves.
Ultimately, a number of factors led to Calgary taking control of the game in the third period, though.
"I think it's a combination of playing on Olympic-sized ice and you're not used to it, but also the first game back," said Dailey. "When you're playing the first-place team in the league, that has a lot to do with it, as well."
The teams will meet in the rematch in Edmonton on Saturday (5 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
