Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – History is just three wins away.
After a 5-1 triumph over the SAIT Trojans on Friday night, the MacEwan Griffins are returning to the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference women's hockey final with a chance to become the first team in the league's 20-year history to win four championships in a row.
Needless to say, it was a happy group on the bus ride home after taking care of business – their record 16th win in a row – to earn a 2-0 sweep of the Trojans in the best-of-three semifinal after also beating them 4-2 on Thursday in Edmonton.
"It's obviously something to celebrate in the moment," said MacEwan head coach Lindsay McAlpine. "Our girls played great tonight, came out hard and executed our game plan really well, and got the sweep. That's what we were hoping for moving forward.
"I think it's a successful season any time you're playing for a championship. We've given ourselves and opportunity again, so here we are."
MacEwan will meet the winner of Red Deer College and NAIT (the Ooks lead that semifinal 1-0 after a 5-2 win in Game 1 on Friday). The best-of-five championship series will start next weekend at the Downtown Community Arena (dates and times TBA).
"You could feel the excitement building the last couple of weeks into playoffs," said McAlpine of her team full of players who've been involved in all three of their championships. "They've learned to embrace and love this part of the season.
"It comes with its potential lows, but those possible highs are what drives us, so I guess we'll see what happens from here on in."
On Friday, the Griffins took the play to the Trojans for much of the night. Five different scorers – Jill MacWilliam, Chantal Ricker, Karlie Bell, Sydney Hughson and Amanda Murray – hit the twine as MacEwan's superior depth took over.
"We've talked a lot in this playoff run about coming in waves," said McAlpine. "We've got the depth and I think that speaks to it. That's exactly what it was tonight. One shift after another was relentless on the forecheck.
"SAIT struggled to get out of their zone at times and we got lots of pucks on (goalie Kaylin) Schellenberg. We had a lot of pressure that way and we scored a couple of really nice goals that were set up on great passes tonight."
MacWilliam opened the scoring just 38 seconds into the game when she plucked a loose puck from behind the net, wheeled in front and roofed it under the bar.
SAIT responded just over three minutes later when the Griffins struggled to get the puck out of their own zone and Kelsey Patterson made them pay, going bar down from the right circle.
But the Griffins took control of the contest after that, building momentum off a dominant powerplay midway through the first that led to Carley Jewell walking in off the point and feeding Chantal Ricker for a snipe from the slot, 9:47 into the first period that proved to be the game winner.
"Our response after (getting scored on) was the turning point for me," said McAlpine. "Our powerplay hemmed them in – probably got six shots off that powerplay alone – and it just swung the momentum the whole game."
Bell outworked a defender draped on her back on a two-on-one rush to convert Breanna Golosky's pass for a 3-1 MacEwan lead before the first was done.
Then Hughson beat Schellenberg with a low shot through the five-hole from the left hash 1:50 into the second period and Murray put the game to bed with a late second period tally that was the prettiest of them all – a one-time blast off a scintillating pass through the slot from Jayme Doyle.
"Our puck movement and skating (were key) – I thought we just pushed the pace the entire game," said McAlpine. "When our team is able to push the pace against SAIT we find success. That's what I thought we lacked a little bit yesterday. We were just far more consistent in that area tonight."
Brianna Sank made 13 saves for the first playoff win of her career.
"We did a better job of keeping them to the outside tonight, but she had to make a really critical save in the second period," said McAlpine. "It was a point-blank chance and she came out of nowhere, came across the crease and made a huge glove save."
