Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
OLDS, Alta. – Five games into the season, every rookie on the MacEwan Griffins women's hockey team has a goal after Mackenzie Dachuk registered the first of her ACAC career in a 2-0 win over the Olds College Broncos on Thursday night.
It was also a momentous night for rookie goaltender Brianna Sank, who registered the first shutout of her university career.
"It was exciting," said MacEwan head coach Lindsay McAlpine. "All of our rookies have now scored their first goal and Bri Sank got her first shutout, so they've kind of accomplished that first goal in the ACAC."
Sank needed just eight saves to record the goose-egg as MacEwan badly outshot their ACAC rivals (30-8) in the contest. Still, a shutout is a shutout.
"Sometimes those games are the hardest games to play in where you don't see one for 10 minutes and suddenly you get three in a row," said McAlpine. "You get hot and then you get cold.
"She made every save that she needed to and controlled her rebounds really well. She played with a lot of confidence and I think every time she goes in and plays well, I think the confidence of the girls in front of her is just building."
Jayme Doyle opened the scoring just 4:18 into the contest when she wired a pass from Jordyn Reimer past Olds goaltender Lexi Bruce on a play created by the speedy Amanda Murray, who picked the pocket of a defender on a strong forecheck.
Despite dominating the play, MacEwan couldn't get another for more than 50 minutes.
"To be honest, it was a game that I never felt out of control in," said McAlpine. "You never win a game until the buzzer goes, but there was never a time I felt we put ourselves in a position to have to fight back or fight harder for a win. We got one goal early and held onto the lead and played like we were holding onto it.
"We made a goal that we needed to have a different type of win for us going into the third and it happened. We got to two and played just well enough from there."
That goal came with 4:57 remaining and will be remembered forever by Dachuk, who put a backhander past Bruce for her first ACAC goal in just her second game.
Bruce made 28 saves in a losing effort for the Broncos.
With the win, the Griffins remain undefeated on the season and atop the ACAC standings at 5-0-0-0, while Olds is still looking for its first win at 0-5-0-0.
The teams will meet again on Saturday night in Edmonton (6 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, ACAC TV).
McAlpine is looking for more of the same from the defensive side of the puck.
"I guess something to be happy about is we kept them to eight shots against," she said. "I think that's something we can absolutely build on and look at as a positive. I think in the last game against SAIT we allowed too many against.
"For a team that has won championships on our D zone (play), it's an area we continue to focus on. I'm happy with limiting them to eight shots against."
