Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – Goals galore were on the menu in the first game between the MacEwan Griffins and Mount Royal Cougars men's hockey teams since they met in the Canada West quarter-final last February.
In fact, it had shades of the last meeting between them as the Cougars eliminated the Griffins from the post-season with a 6-4 win on Feb. 17, 2024, with the red light on repeat.
On Friday, the final was 6-3 in favour of the Cougars, who used their speed to pressure the Griffins' D into mistakes they don't normally make.
"You can't give up six goals and expect to win a hockey game," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey. "There were some uncharacteristic errors in our D zone that usually don't happen, but they're a very good team and they put pressure on us.
"We had to defend a lot tonight. When you're tired in the D zone, that's usually when mistakes happen. So, I have to give a lot of credit to them. With their speed, they pushed us, but there were certainly some uncharacteristic defensive errors that we had tonight."
With the result, the Griffins fall below .500 to 8-9-2, while MRU is now 16-5-0.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) January 18, 2025
Marc Pasemko tips home his team-leading eighth of the season on the powerplay as the @MacEwanGriffins close to within two in the second period @MRUCougars #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/919v51F2hF
Despite the loss, Hunter Donohoe provided a signature moment on the evening when he recorded two assists to reach 15 on the season, matching Ethan Strang's single Canada West season program record and there are still nine games left to go.
Donohoe drew helpers on Marc Pasemko's second period goal and Sean Comrie's third period tally and is now tied for eighth in Canada West in assists.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) January 18, 2025
Just as a powerplay concludes, Sean Comrie finds paydirt as the @MacEwanGriffins close to within two again, down 5-3 in the third to @MRUCougars.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/O6Ra2piKld
"I think confidence is probably a big one where he had some success early, got it rolling and got to build on that," said Dailey of the fourth-year Surrey, B.C. product. "And also, he's earned a spot on the powerplay because he's done a lot of good things and that's an opportunity to pick up assists.
"His game this year is at a different level and he's playing very good hockey for us. We're happy to see it. It's kind of the expectation that we knew he could get here. So, I'm happy to see him playing to his full potential."
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) January 18, 2025
Logan Dowhaniuk gets the @MacEwanGriffins on the board in #YYC!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/Y4KCAd0XJY
Logan Dowhaniuk also scored for the Griffins, while Kadyn Chabot, Sam Simard, Vincent Scott and Ethan Sundar all picked up an assist in the game.
Eric Ward stopped 33 of 39 shots for MacEwan, while Riley Sims stopped 16 of 19, and Shane Farkas made two saves in a brief relief for Mount Royal.
MRU got two goals from Josh Tarzwell, and singles from Justin Lies, Blake Stevenson, Dawson Milliken and Zafir Rawji, while Connor Bouchard, Tristan Zandee and Canada West leading scorer Clay Hanus picked up two assists each.
Although they were outshot, the Griffins had plenty of moments in the contest where they took the play to the Cougars, and that's something they can build off of.
"I was impressed with a lot of the offensive stuff that we did," said Dailey. "I thought we had some zone time, we had some good shifts and I thought our neutral zone play at times looked good to put them on their heels. So, those are definitely positives that we can take into tomorrow and just clean up some of the defensive errors."
The teams will meet again on Saturday (5 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
