Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – In the zone all day, fifth-year Griffins women's hockey goaltender Brianna Sank kicked out shot after shot as she got her team into overtime against cross-town rival Alberta on Saturday afternoon.
In heartbreaking fashion, the Pandas scored with just 0.6 seconds left on the clock as Taylor Anker hit the twine on a back door pass from Allison Reich to give Alberta a 1-0 win at Clare Drake Arena.
"Sank was unreal for us today," said MacEwan assistant coach Izzy Cropper. "She made huge saves when we needed her to. She probably made a couple saves that I don't think anybody in the rink expected her to make.
"For us to come out of a game like this with a point, you need your goalie to play that type of game. There were just so many moments in the game where she just stood on her head for us. Really proud of her game today."
Sank finished with 36 saves and a .973 save percentage in the contest as MacEwan improved to 1-7-2 on the season. Alberta is now 6-3-1.
Sank is now up to a .931 save percentage this season, sixth-best in Canada West.
W��| FINAL
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 10, 2024
Brianna Sank stood on her head at the Clare Drake Arena, making 36 saves as @GriffinsWHKY earned a point in a 1-0 @CanadaWest overtime loss to @PandasHockey.#GriffNation
BOXSCORE➡️https://t.co/lOVkNgGY4U pic.twitter.com/mH2WZI9S4i
Earlier in overtime, Joie Simon nearly gave the Griffins their first-ever win over the Pandas, going around the D on an end-to-end rush before her five-hole attempt on Mackenzie Dojahn was snuffed out. Dojahn finished with a 16-save shutout.
"We were pretty close in overtime with less than a minute left," said Cropper. "I have to watch it again to know how close it was, but there was defijnitely a moment in overtime our bench thought maybe we had it.
"I would say we maybe had one or two real chances in the first 60 minutes. Definitely would have liked to put a few more pucks on net today. But we did have a good chance in overtime. It was the tale of the game. One chance in overtime doesn't go in and they had a really nice play to score that goal in overtime."
Cropper said the Griffins worked hard as a team, focusing on the details that allowed them to get a point for an OT loss.
"Just really proud of the team's effort today," she said. "There were a lot of moments where you could see they were doing whatever they needed to do to get through a long shift or kill another penalty, to get pucks in deep, to protect our net, to put rebounds in the corner. I thought for the most part today, we were really committed to habits and details.
"It showed and I think that was a pretty big point for us to earn in the standings today against them."
MacEwan is back in action at home next weekend as Trinity Western visits (Nov. 15-16).
