Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Unable to hit double digits in shots for the second time this season against the stingy Alberta Pandas, the MacEwan Griffins women's hockey team was blanked 4-0 by their Edmonton rivals in the first action of the second semester on Friday night
MacEwan mustered just nine shots on net with a third of those coming from centre ice at the Downtown Community Arena.
Most of their half decent chances came in the dying minutes with the score already out of reach. It might be a push they can build off of, even as modest as it was.
"A little is not enough to play a good game against a team like that," said Griffins head coach Chris Leeming. "They're the top of the league for a reason and when we decide we want to commit to doing hard things and playing for each other we're going to get results."
Unfortunately, for the Griffins they didn't do much of that on Friday as the Pandas controlled the lion's share of possession with MacEwan mostly content to dump the puck in or attempt individual efforts that were gobbled up by Alberta's miserly defenders.
Pandas goaltender Grace Glover had an easy nine-save shutout for her Canada West-leading fourth goose-egg of the season.
Sara Kazeil, Natalie Kieser, Madison Willan and Jadynn Morden scored for Alberta as they improved to an East Division-leading 13-3-1, dropping MacEwan to 2-12-3.
W��| UPDATE
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) January 4, 2025
Lindsey Johnson has stopped 19 of 21 shots faced through 40 minutes, including this five-alarm stop on a penalty kill. @GriffinsWHKY trails @PandasHockey 2-0 after 2. #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/DoN68yvVCO
Lindsey Johnson was locked in and made several excellent stops for the Griffins – a solid performance even if the statistical record gives her just an .857 save percentage (24 saves on 28 shots).
"That was indicative of how her week went," said Leeming. "She competed every day for every practice and that's why she earned the start tonight. We saw her do what she did all week for us.
"She got beat by a couple good shots and I don't know if she saw that last one. She's been consistent with her battle level for us and has demonstrated a lot of growth since the start of the year as she's gotten more games."
Kazeil opened the scoring with 43 seconds left in the first period when she was allowed to walk all the way around the net and the traffic in front untouched before wiring it past Johnson.
Kieser put the Pandas up 2-0 1:59 into the second period after a loose puck in the crease was cleared right to her stick and she made no mistake.
Willan added an insurance marker 7:26 into the third period, roofing a gorgeous Abby Soyko pass over Johnson's shoulder on a one-timer in the slot.
Morden then completed the 4-0 result with a powerplay slapshot through traffic with 51 seconds left.
MacEwan's Joie Simon looks for an opening in the offensive zone on Friday. The Griffins were mostly gobbled by the stingy Pandas defence (James Maclennan photo).
Alberta went 1-for-7 on the PP as the Griffins got into plenty of penalty trouble. And their powerplay was anemic on two chances.
"Overall, on our penalty kill we didn't give up a ton of Grade A scoring chances until the end there," said Leeming. "We did well in the first period. I think we killed off three consecutive penalties and that held us in the game, and Johnny made some key saves for us.
"On the powerplay we've got to generate shots and overall we've got to generate shots. We need to improve on that, along with a lot of other areas."
They'll be looking to do that in the rematch, scheduled for Saturday (2 p.m., Clare Drake Arena, Canada West TV).
