Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – There's a reason why the UBC Thunderbirds are the defending Canada West women's hockey champions.
They're first to loose pucks, their passing is pinpoint and they win the majority of the board battles.
All of that was on full display in a dominating 5-0 win over the MacEwan Griffins on Friday night at the Downtown Community Arena.
The Griffins looked a step behind for most of the night and the score would have been worse if not for the stellar play of rookie netminder Lindsey Johnson, who stood on her head, making 38 saves in her U SPORTS debut.
"She made a lot of great saves early on and for her to come in and play a team like that for her first Canada West game, I think she did pretty good, despite the score," said Griffins interim head coach Chris Leeming. "That was a confidence-builder for her.
"The score could have been a lot higher if she didn't make a lot of the saves that she did. She played with a lot of poise and confidence and that was great to see. I'm really happy for Johnny."
UBC took 19 shots on net before they finally got one past Johnson 5:17 into the second period when Sophia Gaskell outhustled a Griffins defenceman in a race for a loose puck in MacEwan's zone and sent a pass cross-crease down low for Mackenzie Kordic to one-time into the net.
The T-Birds scored again 23 seconds later when Cassidy Rhodes rang a shot off the post and in on a two-on-one.
Rylind Mackinnon made it 3-0 19 seconds into the third period on a low point blast through traffic before Ireland Perrott (banging home a rebound) and Rhodes, with her second of the game on a beautiful one-timer off a 2-on-1 pass from Chanreet Bassi, salted away the contest for the visitors.
Elise Hugens had a 12-save shutout for UBC, while Johnson put up an .884 save percentage in her debut, respectable considering the number of high danger chances she faced.
"As a goalie, it's definitely nice to have a few shots," said Johnson. "I would say some of them were a bit too difficult, but I'm definitely happy to be busy and helping my team out."
She certainly did, making several highlight-reel stops, including frustrating Jacqueline Fleming twice on the doorstep in the second period. And her finest save of the evening came late in the third when she robbed Karine Sandilands on a point-blank one-timer.
Not a bad U SPORTS debut for the Edmonton Pandas product, who broke records with her play in the Alberta Female Hockey League last season.
"It was definitely a little bit nerve-racking," said Johnson of her first start. "UBC's a really strong team. But once I got going, I just got into the motions and throughout the practices I have a really great team playing in front of me. That always calms the nerves, so I think we did well."
Amanda Murray and the Griffins didn't have much time and space against UBC on Friday night (Joel Kingston photo).
MacEwan's best stretch in the game came late in the third period when they actually strung some solid shifts together in UBC's zone and generated some shots on net.
"It wasn't a loss for a lack of effort, in my opinion," said Leeming of the loss. "They're a very strong team and we maybe were mesmerized a little bit by what they were doing out there. When we finally got focused on what we need to do, we started to create some offence, break out and get some offensive zone generation – get some shots on net. We've just got to focus on each shift and what's important really."
There is a template for them to have more success in Saturday's rematch with the T-Birds (4 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV). Not only did they split with UBC last season, winning the Saturday match of their series, they had an eerily similar game in their first one against Mount Royal University last weekend when they had just 10 shots, only to come back with a 4-2 win on Saturday.
"We're really good as a team at having comeback performances," said Johnson. "That's what we did last week with Mount Royal. We came back with the second game and it really made a big difference."
Added Leeming: "I think we also showed we can play with them in the third period there. That was definitely a step in the right direction for what we're capable of doing. That was our discussion at the end of the game was come in with some confidence tomorrow and focus on what we need to do to be successful."
