Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Special teams let down the MacEwan Griffins against the Manitoba Bisons.
A power play goal in the first, and a powerplay goal in the second by the Bisons dug too big of a hole for MacEwan, as they came up empty on five powerplay opportunities of their own in a 4-1 loss to Manitoba at the Downtown Community Arena on Friday night.
Riley Stotts, Jonny Hooker, Caden Zaplitny and Skyler Bruce scored for Manitoba, while Griffins rookie Caden Cabana scored his first-career Canada West conference goal in the loss.
Eric Ward made 13 saves in the loss for MacEwan, while Braden Holt made 34 saves in the win for Manitoba.
"I thought our special teams let us down tonight, that was the difference, we gave up two goals on our PK and our power play didn't look like they wanted to be out there," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey.
"It's disappointing. I thought five-on-five we did a lot of good things, but I don't think we made it hard enough on their goalie, and we didn't do a good enough job executing."
Stotts gave Manitoba a 1-0 lead on the Bisons first power play, and it didn't take long. Just eight seconds into the power play, Stotts ripped a shot over the shoulder of Ward.
Outside of the power play goal, it was a solid period by MacEwan, who outshot Manitoba 10-4, but that power play marker seemed to give the Bisons some life.
Caden Cabana celebrates his first Canada West goal in the second period on Friday (Derek Harback photo).
After MacEwan jumped out with some energy in the second period, they started to get into penalty trouble.
Carson Haynes was sent off for cross-checking at the 2:52 mark, and then MacEwan gave Manitoba a two-man advantage for 30 seconds after Hunter Donohoe took a slashing penalty.
Manitoba didn't score on the two-man advantage, but they cashed in with MacEwan down one man, as Hooker's one-time from the right faceoff circle beat Ward to give the Bisons a 2-0 lead.
Just over four minutes later, Zaplitny gave Manitoba a 3-0 lead, and MacEwan was in a deep hole.
The Griffins PK has struggled to find their groove in the early portion of the season, and MacEwan didn't help themselves by taking too many penalties through the first half of the game.
"It's early, and it's tough when you let some in early and you don't have that many kills, so your percentage looks horrible, but it's something we've recognized it super important, and we've dedicated more practice time to it, and it hasn't been paying off, so we're going to have to keep pushing," said Dailey.
"We're on the right track, we're close, but it's the willingness to block shots, and making sure our goalies know the game plan. It's a team effort, and we're close, and we're going to get out of it, we just need to execute a little better."
M��| GOAL
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) October 26, 2024
Shout out to @GriffinsMHKY rookie Caden Cabana, who scored his first @CanadaWest goal tonight vs. the @umbisons!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/dgb346ZTac
Cabana would cut the Griffins deficit to 3-1 with his first career goal. The former Spruce Grove Saint and Lloydminster Bobcats forward made a nice move around Holt and tucked the puck in behind the sprawling netminder.
"It was nice. It was a great shift by my linemates... Haynesy (Carson Haynes) with the nice feed and Sunny (Ethan Sundar) carrying the puck up and our guys just working hard down low. It was nice to get rewarded," said Cabana.
"It's unfortunate we dug ourselves too big of a hole. Those power play goals were not something we wanted to give up, but I thought we responded well.
"We're not happy with this result at all, and I'm excited to see how motivated we are tomorrow. Five-on-five we were the better team, we just need to stay disciplined and come out with a strong effort tomorrow."
MacEwan had three power play opportunities in the third period alone, but couldn't generate many quality scoring chances, despite outshooting Manitoba 14-5.
"Passes on the tape... we couldn't pass on the tape. I don't know what the deal was there. Obviously, they're a good team, they pressure hard and their goalie was great and they're committed to blocking shots, so you have to give credit to them," said Dailey.
"But ultimately, we didn't execute our game plan... we couldn't pass on the tape, we didn't have enough traffic.
"That was a game we needed (to win), so it's disappointing that our execution was the issue. I liked our effort, our guys work hard, and I know they care, we just need to be better execution-wise."
MacEwan will wrap up their weekend series with Manitoba on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Downtown Community Arena.
