Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – What's done is done – the Griffins men's hockey team is heading on a weekend road trip with a fresh slate and clear mind as they prepare to play two games against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
Gone from memory, except the lessons learned, is their last outing – an undisciplined 8-1 loss to Canada West defending champion Calgary on Sept. 30 where 41 minutes in penalties led to MacEwan giving up five powerplay goals against.
"We had to switch our focus," said head coach Zack Dailey. "That weekend was over. We took the positives that we could, learned from the negatives and shifted our focus to Saskatchewan. They're a very good team, skate well, skilled, compete well, put lots of pressure on you, so we're focused on ways to break pressure and ways to be a little bit more successful this weekend."
The Griffins (0-2-0) and Huskies (2-0-0) will tangle on Friday (7 p.m. MT) and Saturday (5 p.m. MT, both Canada West TV).
It's the first road trip of the season for the Griffins, which can have a galvanizing effect on a roster – spending 10 hours together on a bus.
"It's always fun spending time together on the bus," said Dailey. "It's a chance to get away – a forced hangout for the team. So, it should be good in terms of gelling. But our focus is on winning hockey games. It's a business trip for us.
"It's great to get on the road and have some fun, but our main focus is on how we're playing and coming out with a result."
To do that, they'll need to slow down a Huskies squad that's off to a flying start so far this season. Saskatchewan is coming off 6-1 and 3-2 road wins over Manitoba to open the 2023-24 season.
"I think discipline is a big one," said Dailey of how they'll find success. "We definitely took too many penalties (against Calgary). Then, just the consistency. I think that's something every team looks for.
"I think that's the hardest part of hockey is just consistent efforts. That's something we just want to focus on and build on. We've liked our game for parts and now we have to build the consistency part where we're doing that for a whole game."
