Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Carson Ironside wasn't born yet when his father Scott tended twine for five seasons with the Alberta Golden Bears from 1990-95.
As he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a goaltender himself, he also fell in love with the U SPORTS game, watching the action and dreaming of the day he might one day play in the league.
On Saturday afternoon, the reality proved to be every bit as good as the dream.
The rookie made 32 saves in his U SPORTS debut, playing hero as the MacEwan Griffins beat the defending Canada West champion UBC Thunderbirds 5-1 at the Downtown Community Arena.
"I grew up watching this league," he said. "My dad played in it, so we went and watched a lot of games. I think it was a really, really special moment for me and I was really excited. I've been waiting a long time for this moment, so I just went out there and reminded myself it's just another hockey game. My job is to stop the pucks and that's what I'm going to do."
UBC, who had beaten MacEwan 6-1 on Friday night, was looking for the weekend sweep, and wound up outshooting the Griffins 33-14 on Saturday. But Ironside was in the zone, stopping breakaways, one-timers and point-blank shots, while his defence did an excellent job of blocking shots, getting in passing lanes and forcing a lot of stuff to the perimeter.
"I'm really proud of him," said MacEwan head coach Zack Dailey. "He's worked hard for us all year in practice, so I'm not surprised by the effort. He always gives a great effort. He was able to handle pucks really well, too, so that helped our D with breakouts.
"It was a tough situation going in against a top team. He hadn't played a game yet and we got shelled yesterday, so I'm really proud of how he performed tonight."
M��| RECAP
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 3, 2024
Rookie Carson Ironside makes 32 saves in dream debut as @GriffinsMHKY beats defending @CanadaWest champion @ubctbirds 5-1.#GriffNation
�� Derek Harback
STORY➡️https://t.co/mKblXs77R6 pic.twitter.com/xLuFlIzJe1
With the result, the Griffins get back to .500 in the standings at 4-4-0, dropping UBC to 4-5-1. It's MacEwan's first-ever home win over the Thunderbirds, following a road overtime triumph they had over them during the 2022-23 season.
"It's huge," said Ironside. "UBC's obviously the defending champs. It just proves to us that we can beat anyone. It's going to be a great rest of the year and I'm excited to see what we can do."
Marc Pasemko led the way for the Griffins with two goals, while rookie Caden Cabana enjoyed the first multi-point effort of his university career with a goal and an assist and Kadyn Chabot had two helpers to stretch his team scoring lead to nine points in eight games.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) November 2, 2024
Marc Pasemko's shot squeezes through to open the scoring with 3:37 left in the first!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/JoJ7HH1jWJ
Pasemko opened the scoring with 3:37 left in the first period when his wrister from the left circle trickled through UBC netminder Brett Mirwald.
Liam Ryan's long-range shot 11:05 into the second did the same thing, somehow eluding Mirwald to put MacEwan up 2-0.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) November 2, 2024
Liam Ryan's long-range shot finds the twine as the @MacEwanGriffins take a 2-0 lead!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/n9i7cq9c2K
After Carson Latimer finally got the T-Birds on the board later in the frame on a powerplay snipe, the Griffins got two huge saves in a row from Ironside as he stopped Latimer on a breakaway and snuffed out another clean break by Chris Douglas with a blocker stop.
"I knew going into it, it was going to be a tough game," said Ironside. "And it always is. There's a lot of really good teams in this league. I knew I was going to battle. Sometimes that makes it easy – just go out there and battle and stop the puck."
M��| UPDATE
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 2, 2024
Rookie Carson Ironside is up to 22 saves through 40 minutes - including this one on a breakaway - as @GriffinsMHKY leads @ubctbirds 2-1 in @CanadaWest action.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/J6ae1Yztpo
With the game in the balance early in the third, the Griffins scored twice in a 16-second span to give themselves some breathing room. Caden Cabana crashed the net, poked Spencer McLean's centring pass out of the air and in, celebrated and stayed out there for the next shift, where he found Logan Dowhaniuk for a back-door one-timer.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) November 2, 2024
Caden Cabana pokes home a loose puck on Spencer McLean's centring attempt to give @MacEwanGriffins a 3-1 lead 2:04 into the third.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/ImEvAO5Qt9
"We talk about the response shifts after goals," said Dailey. "We want to retain momentum, we don't want to give up momentum. After you get scored on, there's usually a big push from the other team. So, we just need to make sure we're ready after goals and that line did exactly that. They were ready, they were dialed, they pushed again and got another one, so that was really big in terms of the momentum of the game.
"After that, we kind of went into cruise control and settled in. Some of the pressure was off, so those were two really big goals for us."
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) November 2, 2024
Just 16 seconds after the @MacEwanGriffins went up 3-1, Logan Dowhaniuk sneaks in off the point to one-time in the Griffins' fourth of the night!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/iilEQ9Cill
Pasemko raced onto an expertly lobbed out puck by Chabot that landed mid-attacking zone and hit an empty net with 3:55 left to salt away the win.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) November 2, 2024
Marc Pasemko hustles onto a loose puck to salt this one away with an empty-netter on his second goal of the game!
5-1 final for @MacEwanGriffins over @ubctbirds! @CanadaWest #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/Nkaj8fzevI
Next up for the Griffins is a home-and-home series against cross-town rival Alberta Nov. 8-9.
