Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – A second-period parade to the penalty box led to a deluge of goals going in the back of the MacEwan Griffins' net on Friday night.
When the proverbial waterfall stopped, the score read 7-0 for the visiting Cougars (17-5-3), who kept their chances of earning a first-round playoff bye alive, pulling within two points of idle Alberta (18-5-3) for second place with a game in hand.
And, as ugly as the score was for MacEwan (8-16-1), they were no worse for wear in their bid for the final post-season berth, remaining just one point behind Regina (8-15-2) for sixth and still tied with Manitoba (8-16-1) for seventh as they were both also routed – by Saskatchewan and Calgary, respectively.
That said, the 7-0 defeat is certainly going to lead to some reflection for the Griffins.
Interim head coach Zack Dailey knows exactly what went wrong.
"Penalties certainly took our momentum away," he said. "I thought the execution tonight was the biggest issue. I thought our guys skated pretty hard, but we couldn't make a pass, we couldn't receive a pass, we turned over a whole bunch of pucks and we were right next to guys and still allowed them to get shots off.
"We were in OK spots, but the actual execution of everything was not close to good enough."
After an even (and scoreless) first period, the wheels started to fall off for the Griffins when Mount Royal killed off MacEwan's first powerplay of the game early in the second. The Cougars rolled with the momentum gained, netting the game's opening goal when Clayton Hanus sifted a shot through traffic bar down.
Then came the floodgates: Blake Stevenson, Riley Sawchuk and Stevenson again on three-straight back-breaking tallies in less than three minutes as MRU took control as MacEwan was forced to kill of four-straight penalties.
"The biggest thing is staying out of the box," said Dailey. "Any time you give a powerplay eight opportunities, you're going to get scored on. It doesn't matter how good your penalty kill is, if you keep giving them chances, you're using certain guys who are getting tired and they're going to get goals. The discipline was not good enough.
"That's the biggest thing for me on our penalty kill is discipline and not giving them numerous opportunities. They have the two leading scorers in Canada."
That would be Sawchuk and Nolan Yaremko, who got on the scoresheet himself in the third period, converting on a back door tap in off a Connor Bouchard cross-seam pass. Andrew Fyten and Spencer Moe rounded out the scoring for MRU.
M��| FINAL
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) February 4, 2023
We leave you with the save of the night - the best of Ashton Abel's 44 stops as @MacEwanHockey gets outshot 51-24 in a 7-0 loss to @MRUmhockey. Stay tuned for a recap.
Good news is Griffins remain just one point out of a @CanadaWest playoff spot.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/QSAqZP8Wz9
Ashton Abel made 44 saves for the Griffins, none finer than sliding over to stop a 3-on-1 one-timer in the third period that was bouncing up and over him before his spun on his belly and tapped it out of mid-air with his glove.
Shane Farkas stopped 24 of 24 for his first shutout of the season, but outside a few crease-crashing chances, he wasn't tested with much that would be considered high danger.
The Griffins, who now haven't scored in 163 minutes and 55 seconds, dating back to the second period of a 3-2 overtime loss to UBC on Jan. 27, know they need to get back to the basics of creating more offence.
"Hopefully it will be an ugly one where we just get pucks and bodies to the net," said Dailey. "I thought we did an OK job of creating chances up to this point. I don't think today was good enough. We're just going to have to get pucks and bodies to the net."
Spencer McLean gets a point-blank chance on MRU goaltender Shane Farkas, but the Griffins couldn't beat him on 24 shot attempts (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
The teams will meet again on Saturday in Calgary (7 p.m., Canada West TV), which is the best thing for the Griffins.
Tomorrow is a new day and they're still only one point out of a playoff spot.
"That's our approach," said Dailey. "This one's over with. Whether it's 2-1 or 7-0, it's a loss.
"We certainly need to be better, and I think the guys know that. They're smart people and smart hockey players. But the bright side is we have another opportunity tomorrow to right the ship and get a point or two. That's what we need going forward."
