Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — Late goals can come back to haunt you, and the MacEwan Griffins learned that the hard way.
After clawing back to tie the game against the No.3 ranked Mount Royal Cougars, the Griffins gave up two goals just 3:51 apart in the late stages of the second period and that proved to be too much as MacEwan lost 3-1 on Friday night at the Downtown Community Arena.
Alya Johma, Kourtney Kollman and Allee Gerrard scored for the Cougars, while Rylee Gluska scored for the Griffins, as MacEwan dropped to 1-4-0, while Mount Royal improved to 6-0-1 this season.
"A late goal can really deflate you, but I thought the girls responded well. We generated a lot of shots in the third, and we really pushed, we just didn't bury our chances," said Griffins interim head coach Chris Leeming.
"It wasn't until the third period where you saw a little more urgency in our game and more consistency. We talked about mistakes, and they're going to happen, but we have to find a way to limit them."
MacEwan jumped out with some momentum in the early moments of the first period, but couldn't take the lead as Cougars goaltender Kaitlyn Ross made some key early stops.
The Cougars took a 1-0 lead at the 8:12 mark of the first when Johma split between the Griffins defenders and beat Griffins goaltender Brianna Sank with a shot that went five-hole to give the visitors the lead.
MacEwan wasn't able to generate many quality scoring chances through the first period, as Mount Royal's stingy defence stood tall.
But the Griffins didn't stop battling and were able to tie the game at 1-1 just over three minutes into the second period when Gluska hustled down the right wing and snapped a shot over the shoulder of Ross and under the crossbar.
Rylee Gluska celebrates scoring MacEwan's lone goal on Friday night (Joel Kingston photo).
While that goal should've swayed the momentum in favour of the Griffins, it seemed to spark the Cougars as they started to put even more offensive pressure towards Sank and the rest of the Griffins.
With just under four minutes left, Coleman gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead when she jumped on a loose puck and beat Sank with a quick shot.
Then, moments later Gerrard's first-career goal gave Mount Royal some insurance.
"I thought Sank had another great game today. They were outshooting us pretty badly, and she kept us in the game quite a bit," said Leeming.
There was nothing Sank could do on either of the go-ahead goals, as Mount Royal capitalized on a turnover after a faceoff win on the second goal, and the third goal she was beaten through all kinds of traffic in front.
"Those two quick ones (goals) really killed any momentum we had," said Sank, who made 26 saves in the loss.
"Both goals were a bit unlucky, but Mount Royal is a good team, and they'll take advantage of chances like that."
The Griffins have been starving for goals this season, having tallied just six goals in their opening five contests to begin the season.
It's been a tough go for the young and inexperienced Griffins, who have also yet to score a power play goal this season (0 for 15).
Down two goals, the Griffins had two power plays in the third period, and weren't able to convert, but their power play looked much more dangerous.
"We made an adjustment to our power play this week. We had some more poise with the puck and got some good looks, but we know it's going to take some time with the adjustment," said Leeming.
The Griffins will travel to Calgary to take on the Cougars in their home-and-home series Saturday (6 p.m., Flames Community Arena, Canada West TV).
