Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The Griffins were able to break their scoring drought against the Alberta Pandas on Friday night, so they have that as a positive takeaway, even if the end result was a 4-1 loss to their Edmonton rivals at the Downtown Community Arena.
Letta Mattheos one-timed a power-play slapper bar down past Misty Rey 6:10 into the third period for the Griffins' first goal against the Pandas in three meetings this season.
"It was great," said MacEwan assistant coach Izzy Cropper, running the bench in head coach Chris Leeming's absence with Team Alberta at nationals in Nova Scotia. "For Leets, she was working really hard today. I really liked her physicality.
"She's someone who made some key adjustments in her game from last week. So, it was nice to see her put one on the board for us."
The visitors, however, already had a 3-0 lead at the time on goals by Maia Ehmann, Natalie Kieser and Sara Kazeil, and weren't fazed by Mattheos' tally, adding an empty netter by Raegan Yewdall to salt away the victory.
With the result, Alberta improves to 6-3-0, while MacEwan drops to 1-7-1 in the Canada West East Division standings.
Alberta outshot MacEwan 39-13 in the game, mainly because they hemmed the Griffins in for long stretches and cycled, putting pressure on without a ton of high-danger chances.
"I think especially the start of the game we weren't as physical as last week against UBC on the Friday," said Cropper. "When you're not as physical as you need to be against a team like this, usually they end up in your end for a little bit of the game. There were some times we needed to get the puck out and we didn't do that, so we ended up in our end for a lot longer than we'd like to be.
"There are things we need to take away from the game and make some adjustments for tomorrow. I think the positive side are a lot of the things we know we can do better are in our control and things we can make those adjustments on from Game 1 to Game 2."
Sydney Olsen battles with Alberta's Madison Willan on Friday night (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
Ehmann put the Pandas out front 6:27 into the contest when she tipped Payton Laumbach's pass from the corner past Lindsey Johnson.
Kieser made it 2-0 on the Pandas' 22nd shot of the game when the Griffins got stuck in their own end for a prolonged period and Yewdall hit her with a pass that she tipped over Johnson's shoulder from five feet out.
MacEwan almost got out of the middle frame only down two, but Kazeil capitalized on a late-period 4-on-4, walking in untouched off the point and had all day to pick the perfect shot off the post and in.
Mattheos almost scored for the Griffins late in the second, hitting the crossbar, so she seemed due in the third when MacEwan worked a powerplay passing sequence that left her with an opening from the right hash to wire over Rey and bar down.
"It was pretty nice for us to build some energy for our bench," said Mattheos of her first goal of the season. "U of A's a big competitor for us and it was just nice to get one in against them."
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Hockey (@GriffinsWHKY) November 9, 2024
After hitting the pipe earlier in the game, Letta Mattheos wasn't going to be denied this time as her slapper goes bar down and in to pull the @MacEwanGriffins within two in the third. 3-1 @PandasHockey #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/GhHDqLP1I0
Some late-game theatrics where Kori Paterson and Jayden Morden traded roughing penalties showed how intense the local rivaly is getting between Edmonton's U SPORTS teams.
"It's starting to build," agreed Mattheos. "They're the other Edmonton team and I feel our team's been taking a lot of big steps lately so it's nice to play them again compared to the start of the year."
Johnson made 36 saves for the Griffins, while Rey – her goalie partner with the U18AAA Edmonton Pandas before they embarked on university careers – stopped 12 for Alberta.
The rivals will meet again on Saturday (2 p.m., Clare Drake Arena, Canada West TV).
