MacEwan Athletics

REGINA – On their way to snapping a seven-game losing streak with a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes, the MacEwan Griffins were hit with a stun gun in the third period, conceding twice against Regina to fall 3-2 on Friday night.

"They tied it up on a missed coverage in our D zone and it took away our momentum," said Griffins interim head coach Zack Dailey. "After the goal, we sat back and tried the be conservative instead of being aggressive."

As a result, the Griffins (6-13-0) now trail the Cougars (6-11-2) by two points in the standings and have dropped into eighth in the conference. However, they remained just three back of Manitoba (7-11-1) for the final playoff spot after the Bisons lost 5-1 to Mount Royal.

It appeared for a while that the Griffins might win on Friday by scoring just two goals with Ashton Abel playing well behind tallies from David Kope and Jordan Taupert, while Regina replied with one from Christian Riemer.

But Eric Houk and Brady Pouteau turned the tide for the Cougars.

Still, there were some positives for the Griffins to mine from the loss.

"Positively, we gave up seven goals on our PK last time we played (Regina on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1) and tonight we were solid on the PK," said Dailey. "I thought we did a better job of generating offence. We need a work on creating more traffic, but our offensive zone play looked a lot better. I liked our effort and compete level for most of the game.

"Abel was good again," he added of his goalie, who made 25 saves. "(Marc) Pasemko played well, and (Zach) Webb and (Spencer) McLean worked hard and played well."

The Griffins will be looking for a result in Saturday's rematch (2 p.m., Canada West TV) where a win in regulation would pull them back even with the Cougars in the standings.

"Tomorrow will take a commitment to be in shot lanes all of the time and to do a better job boxing out in front of our net," said Dailey. "We will need to continue to work to generate offensive chances and get more traffic in front of their goalie."