Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins needed to stop the bleeding, and they did so in a big way against the University of Regina Cougars.
Having dropped nine-straight games, and scoring just two goals in their last five, the Griffins came through with a big 3-1 win over Regina Friday night at the Downtown Community Arena.
Claire Hobbs and Allee Isley scored goals 3:27 apart late in the first period and Sydney Hughson added an empty-netter in the third period.
Brianna Sank made 25 saves for the Griffins as they improved to 4-14-1 this season, while the Cougars dropped to 3-15-1.
Trinity Grove added the lone marker for the Cougars.
The victory moved MacEwan past Regina in the conference standings.
"Overall, we executed some of the things we talked about in practice and we found a way to win," said Griffins interim head coach Chris Leeming. "It was a team effort. A lot of individual performances that led to the win."
There have been games this year where the Griffins have allowed late period goals that have come back to bite them, but they were the ones doing the late period damage this time around.
Hobbs gave MacEwan a 1-0 lead at the 15:58 mark, scoring her second of the season. Isley scored her first-career Canada West goal moments later to give MacEwan a 2-0 lead in a period that they controlled, outshooting the Cougars 10-4.
"Both our goals in the first period were the product of great second and third efforts," said Leeming. "(Hobbs) had a great second effort to beat a defender and she tucked it five hole, and Allee got her first goal by going to the net hard and she wasn't taking no for an answer. She was scoring that goal no matter what."
Regina cut the Griffins lead in half, as Grove scored her second goal of the season at the 7:21 of the second period. Grove made no mistake as she beat Sank with a perfect shot through traffic, but that was the only puck that beat Sank, as she stood tall the rest of the way for the Griffins.
Brianna Sank was excellent in stopping 25 of 26 for the Griffins on Friday (Joel Kingston photo).
"The shot that beat her tonight was placed real well, and there was nothing she could do," said Leeming. "Down the stretch they were really putting pressure on us, and she kept us in it. She's been steady for us all year, and she proved again tonight why she's our starter."
With the victory, the Griffins gained ground on Trinity Western for the final playoff spot in the conference, now 11 points back with two games in hand after the Spartans lost to Alberta 1-0.
"We're just focusing on us and what we can control, and we're going to continue to battle and compete," said Leeming.
"Our second effort and compete (level) tonight was big. It wasn't a clean, pretty game tonight, but we stuck with the game plan and we won as teammates tonight. We rode the waves throughout the game and kept a positive mindset throughout the whole 60 minutes.
"I was really happy with our effort tonight, and this is something we can build on."
The Griffins and Cougars will finish their weekend series on Saturday at 4 p.m. (Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
