Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – For a second-straight day, Jesse Jack broke a program record, but there wasn't a ton of other positives for the Griffins women's hockey team to mine out of a 6-1 loss to the UBC Thunderbirds at the Downtown Community Arena.
The visitors were relentless, using their speed, press and forecheck to force turnovers and hem the Griffins in for large swaths of time as the Thunderbirds erased an early 1-0 deficit with six unanswered goals.
"I think they definitely came out harder today than they did yesterday," said MacEwan head coach Chris Leeming, whose team lost 4-1 to UBC on Friday. "We started both games off with the lead."
Indeed, and it was the same goal scorer as Friday as Jack jammed home puck in tight just 3:40 into the Saturday afternoon tilt for her seventh of the season. Not only does that extend her Griffins' single CW season goals record set on Friday, but it also gives her 12 points on the campaign, which breaks the mark of 11 set by Sydney Hughson in 2022-23.
"I think it's just a testament to her consistency and the work ethic she brings every day," said Leeming. "Big picture, she's working hard every single shift. This is the last stretch of her career as a post-secondary hockey player and she's really trying to make the most of it. I think she's doing a great job with everything she's done so far."
With the result, the Thunderbirds improve their Canada West-leading record to 18-1-3, while the Griffins fall to 3-18-1 and remain in ninth.
UBC's scoring was spread around, but Canada West points leader Mackenzie Kordic led the way with two goals, including the T-Birds' first of the game when she one-timed a Madisyn Wiebe pass from behind the net to knot the game 1-1 after one.
Kordic book-ended the team's effort by also scoring their sixth of the contest with 4:29 remaining when she picked Jack's pocket in the neutral zone, went in alone on Lindsey Johnson and deked her out.
Jacquelyn Fleming (tip-in), Sophia Gaskell (slapshot bar down) and Wiebe (buried off a broken play) all scored in the second period as UBC broke open a tied game and took control.
Chanreet Bassi added another for the visitors in the third when she was wide open on the back side to tap a rebound in on the powerplay.
Not only was UBC using its speed to grind down the Griffins, but they disrupted most of their breakouts, often gobbling up passes in the neutral zone and charging back in.
"We showed some pieces that we wanted to execute today," said Leeming. "We did a good job on some of them and some of them we failed to execute. We struggled to get pucks out of the D zone a little bit and they had some extended D time, hence all the shots they had against us there. They're top in the country for a reason, at the end of the day."
If there was another positive to pull out of the game for MacEwan, it was the stellar play of their goaltending again. A day after Brianna Sank delivered a good effort, Johnson did the same again, giving the Griffins a chance with 41 saves, including stopping multiple breakaways.
"Johnny had a decent showing again and made some pretty solid saves for us," said Leeming. "She did a good job helping us on the penalty kill. I know they got a couple tonight. But being in her second year and not playing a ton of games last year, she's really elevated her game play for us – making saves when there's breakdowns. They're the last line of defence."
UBC's Kayla McDougall made 16 saves for the Thunderbirds.
Next action for MacEwan is a road series at Saskatchewan on Jan. 19-20.
SKATE WITH THE GRIFFINS
Prior to the game, the MacEwan Alumni department and Griffins players hosted their fifth-annual 'Skate with the Griffins', where alumni and their families came out for a fun skate before cheering the Griffins on during the game.
One lucky child was selected to be a part of the starting lineup and this year it was Aubrey Tiedermann (daughter of Kyle Tiedermann (Bachelor of Science 2014).
Enjoy a few photos from the skate, courtesy of Rebecca Chelmick.
