Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — Getting into penalty trouble can come back to bite you and that's exactly what happened to the MacEwan Griffins against the Trinity Western Spartans on Friday night.
Their night started off great, as rookie forward Sasha Malenfant scored her first-career Canada West conference goal to give MacEwan a 1-0 lead, but then it all fell apart as TWU used their power play to turn the momentum around and scored twice and earned a convincing 4-1 win at the Downtown Community Arena, outshooting MacEwan 41-11 in the process.
"We've got to stay out of the box. Some of them are uncontrollable, but the ones that are in our control, we have to tone it down a little bit and play with more composure and let a few things roll off our backs," said Griffins defenceman Robyn Short.
"Penalties can kill a game for sure, but that's definitely a momentum builder for our team. If we can kill off a penalty that's huge for us, but in the other case, it's huge momentum for them to be on the power play. It's a big part of the game."
Malenfant scored the lone goal for MacEwan in the loss, while Brianna Sank was busy making 37 saves for the Griffins who dropped to 1-8-2 this season.
Jordyn Matthews scored two goals to lead the Spartans, while Kara Yackel and Kelsey Ledoux also replied for TWU, which improved to 6-5-0 this season.
Malenfant will certainly remember her first-career goal, as the product of Prince Albert, Sask. drove down the right wing and ripped a snapshot under the crossbar, popping the water bottle to give MacEwan a 1-0 lead at the 11:09 mark of the first period.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Hockey (@GriffinsWHKY) November 16, 2024
First goal alert!
Sasha Malenfant makes the water bottle dance on her first @CanadaWest @USPORTS_Hockey tally, putting the @MacEwanGriffins up 1-0 on @TWUSpartans midway through the first at the DCA.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/r0txSCND09
But in the second period, MacEwan started a parade to the penalty box, and TWU was able to capitalize as Yackel made a nice move into the slot and beat Sank with a perfect shot through traffic that was expertly placed inside the post.
Late in the period, TWU got another chance on the power play, and despite being dangerous, they came up empty, but they continued to put pressure on the Griffins and Matthews scored her first of the game with 52 seconds left in the period to give TWU a 2-1 lead.
It was a dominant second period by TWU as they outshot MacEwan 18-3.
"After taking all those penalties, our bench energy went down, and we were quiet, which you wouldn't think is an impact, but it has a huge impact on everyone," said Griffins forward Kori Paterson.
"We're going to take penalties, and if the refs are calling it that way, we have to acknowledge it, and just move on; we can't let it eat us up, and I think we let that happen a little too much tonight."
Down only one going into the third period, the Griffins needed to find a way to swing the momentum back in their favour — but they weren't able to get anything going.
TWU extended their lead to 3-1 on another power play marker by Ledoux, whose point shot made its way through a ton of traffic to beat Sank, and then with MacEwan on a power play late, and the goalie out, Matthews added a short-handed empty net goal in a period that TWU outshot MacEwan 14-3.
In the final 40 minutes, TWU outshot MacEwan 32-6.
"Only getting 14 shots on net, that's not enough. It makes it tough to win, when you're not generating enough looks and shots on net," said Short.
"We have to go into tomorrow's game and get pucks on net from wherever you can. Crash the net, shoot from wherever you can. If we get the puck over the blueline, fire it on net and get bodies to crash the crease and see what happens.
"Fourteen shots isn't going to cut it in this league. Our breakouts have been doing a lot better, so the next step is getting pucks past their blueline and getting pucks on net. Shoot the puck, you never know what happens."
MacEwan will wrap up their weekend series with TWU on Saturday (3 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
