Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
REGINA, Sask. – It was a night to remember for Brianna Sank and her MacEwan Griffins teammates.
The fifth-year goaltender broke the program's prestigious all-time minutes played record, surpassing Sandy Heim's epic mark of 4,184:11, set between 2015-19, late in the first period.
Then she finished off the night by stopping 20 of 21 shots in regulation, and made another save in the shootout as the Griffins beat the Regina Cougars 2-1.
"I think the team really rallied around Sank," said Griffins head coach Chris Leeming. "She broke the record for the all-time minutes played for the program, so it was nice to have her in net for the win tonight."
Sank passed Heim with 3:04 remaining in the first period and, at the conclusion of the game, is now at 4,232:16 regular season minutes played since first joining the Griffins in 2019.
"They knew," said Leeming of his players. "When the clock was ticking down, the bench was going nuts when the time passed. It was a pretty cool moment and great for her to be able to do that for our program."
Congrats to Brianna Sank, who became the @MacEwanGriffins' all-time minutes played leader at the 3:04 mark of the first period at @ReginaCougars. She passes Sandy Heim, who had 4,184:11 regular season minutes from 2015-19.
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Hockey (@GriffinsWHKY) November 23, 2024
Griffins trail the Cougars 1-0 after one.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/hXbaCUk5UT
And even cooler that it came on a night the Griffins skated to a victory.
With the result, the Griffins improved to 2-10-1-1, dropping Regina to 7-3-2-2.
After Regina's Tessa Stewart opened the scoring with two minutes left in the first period, Kori Paterson sent the game to overtime with 6:09 left in the third when she crashed the net and chipped it past Regina goaltender Natalie Williamson.
"I just happened to look up off the bench to see the pass to the net front and her driving to bang it in," said Leeming, who had his head down talking with a couple of players on the bench right before the goal. "I didn't really see the whole play.
"We talk a lot about getting to the net front and being willing to pay the price to get to the dirty areas. She's one of the people who has done that consistently and has gotten rewarded on a number of opportunities."
GOAL
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Hockey (@GriffinsWHKY) November 24, 2024
Kori Paterson wins the draw and then scores the equalizer, sending the @MacEwanGriffins to overtime, tied 1-1 with @ReginaCougars.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/r6mB9fIEBk
After OT solved nothing, it set up the third shootout between the Canada West East Division rivals in four meetings this season.
Claire Hobbs, who drew an assist on Paterson's game-tying goal, got things started on the right foot for the Griffins with a forehand-backhand deke goal to put them up 1-0 in the shootout.
In the shootout, Claire Hobbs struck first with this beautiful move!@MacEwanGriffins #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/ILfuzjqvnU
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Hockey (@GriffinsWHKY) November 24, 2024
After Sank stopped Regina's Jules Stokes, Jennifer Andrash pulled off a double deke and tucked it in to put MacEwan up 2-0.
"Usually on Thursdays at the end of practices, we have shootouts, so we've had multiple opportunities to be in those situations," said Leeming. "Those two are two that consistently score for us, so we felt comfortable they'd be able to come through for us."
Jennifer Andrash's double deke gem stands up as the winning goal in a shootout as @MacEwanGriffins defeat @ReginaCougars 2-1!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/GFwV4f42Dm
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Hockey (@GriffinsWHKY) November 24, 2024
Regina stayed alive when Cassidy Peters scored on a deke in the second round. After Sydney Jack's third-round miss, the Cougars would need to score on their final attempt or it was over.
Captain Paige Hubbard was left.
Griffins women's hockey fans haven't forgotten back on Oct. 11 when Hubbard was given a redo on the Cougars' third shootout attempt after the official made a rarely-seen call that Lindsey Johnson left the crease early, and the Griffins lost a game they thought they'd won.
This time, Hubbard missed the net on her attempt and the Griffins celebrated victory.
"I think we definitely played a lot more assertive for 60 minutes compared to what we did yesterday," said Leeming. "We just talked about making sure we were competitive. We showed that we cared by competing for each other.
"We were down 1-0 in the third period and we just really wanted to direct our energy in the right direction."
The Griffins are back home next weekend (Nov. 29-30) when they welcome the Saskatchewan Huskies for a pair of games to close out the first semester.
