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Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference "To be Canada's premiere collegiate athletic conference by developing and inspiring leadership through excellence in academics, sport and citizenship"
Posted: Jan 21, 2017

Two quick third-period goals give Ooks victory over Griffins

Two quick third-period goals give Ooks victory over Griffins
Box Score
Scoring Summary
2nd - 01:09 - Trace Elson (NAIT)
2nd - 06:03 - SH - Daniel Wray (GMU)
2nd - 19:21 - Blake Grainger (GMU)
3rd - 11:16 - Tanner Dunkle (NAIT)
3rd - 11:46 - Tanner Dunkle (NAIT)
Game Leaders
NAIT
G: Tanner Dunkle - 2
A: Trace Elson - 2
Sh: Corey Chorneyko - 4
Sv: Brendan Jensen - 26
GMU
G: 2 Players (#11, #22) - 1
A: 3 Players (#12, #17, #22) - 1
Sh: Tyler Morrison - 5
Sv: Marc-Olivier Daigle - 24
Team Stats
Full stats

Zachary Dean / For MacEwan Athletics

There was an intensity on the ice Saturday night at the Downtown Community Arena usually reserved for the playoffs as the MacEwan Griffins and NAIT Ooks met in the second half of a home and home series.

The hits came fast and furious as neither team was willing to give an inch. In the end, it was the Ooks who walked away with a 3-2 victory.

"It was disappointing to not get any points this weekend, and I think the team that played best won both games," said Bram Stephen. "Our compete was good, but inconsistent, and our smarts were terrible."

Both teams are currently in a heated battle with SAIT for the top two seeds in the conference and a bye into the semifinals of the playoffs. With the win, NAIT now sits tied with SAIT for first with 32, while MacEwan is in third place with 31 points. Both of those teams have two games in hand on the Griffins, to boot.

It was a game where NAIT's best players needed to step up and they did just that. The conference's leading point getter, Trace Elson, had a goal and two assists, and now has an impressive 31 points in 19 games.

After a first period that saw more jabs and shoves than scoring chances, Trace Elson opened the scoring for NAIT just 69 seconds into the second period when he beat Marc-Olivier Daigle over the glove with a hard wrist shot.

However, the Griffins would answer back by the end of the period. With Matthew Waseylenko serving a double minor for high sticking, Daniel Wray intercepted a pass and scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway to tie it up.

"Heck of a shorthanded goal. Unbelievable effort," said Stephen. "I don't think last night was his best (game) and to bounce back like that was great."

"I had realized they been favouring up top, going D to D quite a bit, so I just tried to gap up there and intercept the pass," said Wray. "They had been caught out there for a while and I had a little more gas in the tank."

Wray would get his second point of the night when he assisted on Blake Grainger's sixth goal of the season. Grainger streaked down the left side and snapped the puck past Brendan Jensen short-side with 39 seconds remaining in then period.

"Blake has shown that whenever we get in a tough game, he's at his best," said Stephen.

"It was a good look from Grainger to see that short side open up," said Wray. Usually goalies are pushing off and looking for the back door pass so it was a smart, heads up play."

Ultimately, it would not be enough for the Griffins. The Ooks went into the game with an impressive 91.3% on the power play, the best in the league, and ­­on their fourth opportunity Tyler Kunz found Tanner Dunkle in the slot for a one timer to tie the game up. Thirty seconds later, ­­Dunkle found himself in the same position and scored again. He now has 17 goals in 20 games.

By sweeping the weekend series, NAIT improves to 16-4-0, while MacEwan falls to 15-7-1.

MacEwan will be back in action on February 3 when they take on Red Deer College.