Griffins survive chippy, inconsistent outing to complete sweep of Clippers

Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – All bets can sometimes be thrown out the window in afternoon games.

Although MacEwan whipped Briercrest 9-0 just a few hours earlier on Friday night, they had to hang on to their seatbelts in order to secure an 8-5 victory on Saturday afternoon in a wild, chippy affair that featured great goals intertwined with broken systems and undisciplined penalties.

"We didn't play so well today," said Griffins head coach Bram Stephen. "We were undisciplined. We were selfish, at times. We saw some good things. Our first 30 minutes were pretty good.

"We've always struggled with day games," he continued. "With Briercrest, they play them (regularly), so it's a bit of a learning curve. A lot of times, the mental focus isn't as sharp and it wasn't today. We had some good individual performances from a lot of guys, but as a team we could have been a lot better."

Clayton Petrie opened the scoring for the Griffins on the power play 3:51 into the contest when, alone at the side of the net, he one-timed a Bryan Arneson pass past Briercrest goalie Christian Mueller. It was a key ice-breaker for MacEwan.

"I think it was great to get that confidence boost," said Petrie, who was originally credited with two tallies in the contest before a post-game scoring change reduced his output to one. "It was great to get the guys going and it was a great pass from Arnie. When you get a pass like that, it's easy to put it in."

MacEwan went up 2-0 less than a minute later when Cameron Gotaas' two-on-one cross-ice pass was behind Jacob Schofield, but it tipped off his skate and into the net.

Then Briercrest steeled, started hitting and played even with the Griffins the rest of the period. They were rewarded when Ricky Seidel got them on the board at 10:45, clanking it in off the post and behind MacEwan goalie Chris Wray.

"They were more disciplined and they were clogging up the neutral zone a bit more," said Stephen of a Clippers team that may be 2-15-3 on the season but had stretches on Saturday where they were as good as the Griffins.

"They're a counter-attack team and last night they were all (about) attack. I think they were a little overexcited, being in the playoff hunt for that last spot with Concordia and Portage. Last night they were overaggressive and today they were a lot more intelligent in how they protected the neutral zone and their own end.

"Yeah, we still got eight, but they were a lot more intelligent about it and it led to more offence for them."

The Griffins came out stronger in the second and got back to taking the play to the Clippers like they did on Friday night.

Brett Njaa, Johnny on the spot at the left side of the net, hit a gaping cage at 6:43 of the middle frame off a Michael Roberts rebound. Then Nakehko Lamothe let a wrister fly, while falling down in the slot at 10:51 that beat Mueller glove side. MacEwan went up 5-1 at 14:16 when Gotaas finished off a 2-on-0 pass from Tyler Morrison down low.

But the Clippers weren't done. Briercrest fought back within two before the second was out. Josh Peters' shot on the power play, hit Wray and bounced over his head and into the net at 15:42 before Kaillum Gervais wired a wrister glove side top corner with just 2.7 seconds left in the frame.

MacEwan started the third period with a strong effort when Austin Yaremchuk tipped a two-on-one pass from Dallas Smith through the wickets for a short-handed tally at 1:48, a goal which would prove to be the game-winner.

"The main thing is we've got to stick to the game plan," said Petrie. "When you get off your game plan and start worrying about what they do, you start making mistakes and getting out of position. We just had to refocus a little bit and get back to our game plan."

Njaa scored his second of the game at 13:55, again hitting an open net off captain Ryan Benn's gorgeous seam pass.

Unfortunately, after that, the contest devolved into post-whistle scrums and chippy penalties, and when Yaremchuk fought Alex Bechtold at centre ice, it wiped out a MacEwan goal, somewhat controversially. Daniel Wray stepped out of the penalty box and wired a wrist shot past Mueller at 16:55, but the ref waved it off because he blew the whistle for the fight. The whistle, however, was being blown as the puck was entering the net.

In any event, MacEwan wouldn't need the tally, even though in the ensuing penalty aftermath, Briercrest had a power play for the rest of the game – even a 6-on-3 at one point when they pulled their goalie – and Gervais took advantage, scoring twice within two minutes, completing a hat-trick, to make it interesting.

But Gotaas hit an open net at 19:06 to seal an 8-5 result.

The undisciplined fireworks at the end didn't make Stephen overly pleased afterward, even though the result has moved the Griffins into top spot in the ACAC at 15-4-1, a point ahead of SAIT, who host NAIT later on Saturday.

"That's kind of the tipping point, but it starts with puck support and puck management, and the play on the defensive side of it – shorter shifts when you're playing the second game in a few hours," he said. "When you don't do those things right, you have to work harder. When you work harder, you get more tired and start making mental errors. Then it leads to the stuff people see – the undisciplined penalties. It was going both ways, but it's not something we're about."

MacEwan next plays a home-and-home series against NAIT on Jan. 20-21 as the battle for top spot intensifies. The Griffins will be coming in on a four-game winning streak, having scored 29 goals in that span.

"Our guys are really understanding angles and lanes to play from and how to play off the team's blind spots – good shot selection, good drive selection," said Stephen. "Our hockey IQ, in that regard offensively has improved a lot since the first half of the year. It's something we've worked on a lot and we're starting to see it."

Njaa led the Griffins with two goals and two assists, to stretch his team lead in scoring to 21 points in 20 games.