Wild third period sends Griffins to first loss at new arena

Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – It took 34 shots for the Griffins to finally solve Red Deer netminder Mike Salmon on Friday night.

When Stefan Danielson's seeing-eye wrister found its way past him at 11:17 of the third period, the floodgates opened.

Unfortunately, for the Griffins, they couldn't keep the water out of their own net.

In one of the wildest third periods you'll ever see – with eight goals scored between MacEwan and visiting Red Deer in just over 10 minutes – the Griffins lost 5-4, their first defeat at the new Downtown Community Arena.

"It was a derby – back and forth there," said Danielson, who scored his second of the game at 7:07 when he one-timed a Brett Njaa shot past Salmon that made it 3-2 for MacEwan.

The home side had gone up 2-1, just 23 seconds after their first goal, when Cameron Gotaas deposited a Matthew Waseylenko rebound. But Red Deer tied it 23 seconds after that at 10:31 when Scott Ferguson banged a rebound past goalie Chris Wray.

In hindsight, that one stung as it quickly erased any momentum the Griffins had.

"I think that shift after we scored, we needed to be better at – just keep pressuring them and demoralize them," said Danielson. "You know they're going to bounce back hard after getting scored on. We just have to push back with equal effort or better."

The problem was the Kings kept pushing back, again tying the game at 3-3 just 39 seconds after Danielson's second tally when Ferguson was sent in untouched off a stretch pass and beat Wray low blocker side.

"They were creating foot races all night long and I don't know how many times we got to see one before we adjust," seethed Griffins head coach Bram Stephen afterward. "That third goal was a big one for them. They were flying into the zone all night long and how do we not pick him up? It's awful."

The fourth Red Deer goal, coming with just 2:45 remaining, was off another defensive gaffe. Redford Swan fanned on a pass out of the zone and Red Deer's Dylan Baer took gift and wired it high glove side past Wray.

To make matters worse in MacEwan's comeback effort, Nolan Yaremchuk was penalized for boarding with 1:54 left, meaning it was 5-on-5 with no goalie when the Kings hit an empty net with 1:28 left.

In a game as crazy as that one, though, a 5-3 lead wasn't safe. The Griffins called a timeout and Blake Grainger scored with 54 seconds left off a scramble. More scrambles dominated the final few seconds but the tying goal wasn't to be.

"Four goals is enough to win in this league – just silly, silly stuff," said Stephen, shaking his head after the contest.

"It's a tough league. You score four goals you should win a game."

Salmon made 39 saves for Red Deer (2-4-1-1), while Wray stopped 27 for MacEwan (6-2-0-1). The teams will meet again on Saturday night in Red Deer.