Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – Overcoming a night where adversity came in bunches, the MacEwan Griffins women's hockey team ended a three-game losing streak by gutting out a 3-1 victory over the SAIT Trojans on Friday.
Before the game was a minute old, the Trojans led 1-0 on a breakaway goal by Kelsey Patterson.
Before the night was over, the Griffins killed five penalties, including a 5-on-3 for 1:12 in the third period.
Before they took control of the contest with two late third period goals, MacEwan goaltender Brianna Sank stared down a penalty shot and won.
Sank made 22 saves, while Jordyn Reimer, Chantal Ricker and Morgan Casson each recorded two-point nights as the Griffins improved to 8-3-0-0 on the season, leapfrogging NAIT (7-3-1-0) for second place in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference standings.
The game was very much in doubt, tied 1-1 until the final five minutes of the third period. Jayme Doyle scored the game-winner with 4:35 left before Ricker turned the lights out in Calgary with the insurance marker just over two minutes later.
It was welcome goal-scoring relief for a team that had tallied just four times in their previous three games – all losses – before Friday.
"It was definitely a relief and more so for the girls it's getting that confidence back," said head coach Lindsay McAlpine. "We know we can do it, we're a solid team and we just need to keep plugging away like we did tonight. I was really proud of them for that. We came through in a very critical part of the game and solidified a win in the last five minutes."
After Patterson picked a defenceman's pocket and scored 41 seconds into the game, SAIT held a 1-0 advantage for nearly half the game until Jordyn Reimer evened the score midway through the second period.
"It was a bit of a (crease) crash, which was a great goal for us," said McAlpine. "It's an area we've been working on. She was able to capitalize right on top of the crease and put it into an open net."
Not only did the Griffins gain momentum from Reimer's goal, their penalty kill further energized the bench.
"Our penalty kill was exceptional tonight," said McAlpine. "It always works as a momentum shifter for us and it definitely did in the third period."
Sank was a central figure in that success and she earned player of the game honours for the Griffins.
"She played outstanding," said McAlpine. "She obviously let that one in early but after that shut the door on them and made a breakaway save on a penalty shot in the third period, as well, when it was 1-1, so the game could have been very different. It was a really, really great save.
"Then she made another massive point-blank save on a two-on-one minutes after. So, it kept us in, and momentum swung back, and we were able to get two goals."
Doyle exploded down the right wing and ripped a high snapshot short side that beat Cassidy Brown for the game-winner with 4:35 remaining.
Captain Casson then fed Ricker on a 2-on-2 with 2:21 left and she made no mistake, ripping a shot bar down.
It's a goal-scoring stretch the snake-bitten Griffins can build off of on Saturday when they host the Trojans in the rematch (6 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, ACAC TV).
"I hope so," said McAlpine. "I think it's a great way to head into tomorrow and we only have two games after that before the Christmas break, so I hope we can keep it going."
