Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

VANCOUVER – For a second-straight night, the MacEwan Griffins women's hockey team was neck and neck with the U SPORTS No. 1-ranked UBC Thunderbirds late in the third period.

But the waning minutes again belonged to the T-Birds, who scored twice on the powerplay and added an empty-netter to pull away with a 5-2 win on Saturday night.

The result follows a 4-1 UBC win on Friday that was 2-1 until the final 44 seconds.

"On back-to-back nights, we were 2-1 with a minute left and then we were 2-2 with about five minutes left in the third there," said Griffins interim head coach Chris Leeming. "They scored a powerplay goal and then we pulled our goalie to try and tie it up and they got an empty netter on us. 

"Overall, you look at the final scores of both games, I think it was truly indicative of the whole game itself. They're a strong team. But reflecting on what we set out to execute for ourselves this weekend, I thought we aligned with that."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 6-17-1, while the Thunderbirds improve to 20-2-2 in the Canada West women's hockey standings.

Griffins goaltender Brianna Sank stopped 43 of 47 shots on Saturday, finishing the weekend with 77 saves and a save percentage of .928.

"Sank had a pretty good weekend," said Leeming. "She saw a lot of shots in the two games and gave us an opportunity to stay in the game and compete."

With the Thunderbirds enjoying a 2-0 lead late in the second period, Joie Simon broke the ice for the Griffins with 44 seconds left in the middle frame.

"The first one was a quick breakout and Schutts (Makenna Schuttler) chipped the puck around the D and went and retrieved it," explained Leeming. "She threw it out front to Joie, who was driving the net and she had two or three whacks at it. 

"It was a good example of second and third efforts. Joie stopped at the net front and didn't quit on it. By the second or third whack it went in."

Then, just 4:10 into the third period, Sydney Hughson tied the game with Simon picking up the assist.

"The second goal we scored was a net front play by Joie as well," said Leeming. "We got a nice D to D and a shot through traffic, and it found a way into the back of the net."

Although the Griffins were swept during a weekend trip to Vancouver, they played well and gave the Canada West leader a push.
"I threw it to the team afterwards and asked what their thoughts were after the weekend," said Leeming. "They were happy with their overall compete level and how well they played as a team. 

"If you take away the last minute of the first game and the last five minutes of the game tonight, we were competing with the No. 1 team in the country."

Next up for the Griffins is a home-and-home series vs. Mount Royal on Feb. 3-4.