Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
REGINA, Sask. – It just wasn't a night for MacEwan Griffins hockey shooters against Regina goaltenders.
While the women's hockey team was busy getting blanked 1-0 by Arden Kliewer, who stopped all 42 shots she faced at the DCA, the Griffins men's team put 39 shots on Adam Evanoff and had the same result.
Nothing.
Evanoff – the former Victoria Royals and Moose Jaw Warriors goaltender – recorded the first shutout of his university career with a gem as the Griffins were beaten 3-0 and swept by the Cougars on the final weekend of the regular season.
"He played quite well," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey. "I thought we had a bunch of scoring chances that we couldn't bury on. Once a goalie starts to feel it and gets hot, it's really hard at the end of a game to beat a guy like that.
"We ran into a hot goalie. I thought we played OK. I thought we got outworked at times. They were more physical than us. But I definitely don't think we deserved to win a hockey game."
With the result, the Griffins finished the season with a 10-15-3 record, while Regina came in at 5-22-1 – three of their wins coming against MacEwan as the teams split the season series.
Brett Epp stopped 30 of 32 against Regin on Saturday to give the Griffins a chance.
"He was pretty good," said Dailey. "They're a team that likes to throw pucks from everywhere, so he had to be on his toes and be ready for everything. He had a solid game for us."
Carson Whyte and Eric Pearce scored on him in the final 40 minutes before Eric Houk hit an empty net with 31 seconds left.
The Griffins are off to the playoffs next weekend when they'll visit the 18-8-2 UBC Thunderbirds in a best-of-three quarter-final series Feb. 21-23 in Vancouver. The T-Birds may have finished with just the fourth-most points in the conference this year, but they are the defending Canada West champions.
"It will be a big test for us," said Dailey. "They're a very fast team, they work exceptionally hard and they're really good off the rush through the neutral zone, so we're going to have to find a way to slow them down and force stops if we want to give ourselves a chance.
"They're the defending champs and they're having another really good season, so it will be a big test for us."
After finishing the regular season with three-straight losses, the Griffins will have a concerted effort in practice the next few days as they aim to find their top level ahead of Friday's playoff opener.
"We've got to find our game again," said Dailey. "I haven't liked our game the last two weekends. The goal is just going to be showing a lot of video of us at our best, working through some of the systems in the neutral zone and then just trying have a ready, confident group come the weekend."
ICE CHIPS: With the season coming to a close, a few program records have fallen. Hunter Donohoe finishes with 22 assists – the most by a Griffin in a Canada West season – while Ethan Sundar had 11 helpers, topping the program rookie record … Donohoe also broke the record for the most short-handed assists in a season with two … Caden Cabana posted the best shooting percentage by a rookie with a minimum of 15 shots (24.0) … Samuel Simard posted the best plus/minus by a Griffins player in a Canada West season (+8).
