Discipline, special teams woes sully better effort from Griffins in 4-1 loss to Dinos
Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – Stuck on the penalty kill nine times on Saturday, the Griffins had the double whammy of playing with a struggling powerplay.
All of that added up to a 4-1 loss against the Calgary Dinos.
MacEwan not only went 0-for-5 on the man advantage, they also conceded a short-handed goal against when Calgary's Stephen Kirkpatrick scored in the first period.
"Just really disappointed with our powerplay," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey. "I thought last weekend they did some really good things and then this weekend we couldn't handle pressure. I thought we got outworked by their penalty kill.
"It's definitely disappointing. We can't be going minus on our powerplay."
Kirkpatrick also scored the only even-strength goal the Dinos had (in the second period), while Andrej Kovacevic tallied twice on the powerplay.
Tanner Fincaryk scored MacEwan's lone goal, opening the scoring just 5:07 into the game when he got rewarded for going hard to net, pouncing on a loose puck.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) November 2, 2025
Tanner Fincaryk crashes the net and buries as the @MacEwanGriffins score the opening goal for a second-straight night!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/I0B9lwFVWc
"The effort was better," said Dailey, comparing it to Friday's 5-3 loss at home to Calgary. "I challenged the group to move their feet and compete harder. I thought for the most part, they did that. It was a good response by the guys, but we're going to have to put it all together here instead of just pieces of our game."
That includes the discipline department as the Griffins had 36 minutes on 14 infractions.
"Our execution and discipline were not where they needed to be," said Dailey. "We struggled to make simple plays – passes on the tape – and just took way too many penalties and put too much pressure on our penalty kill."
Zac Onyskiw made 31 saves for MacEwan, while Carl Stankowski stopped 17 for Calgary.
With the result, MacEwan drops to 4-5-1 on the season, while Calgary improves to a league-best record of 8-2-0.
The Griffins will be back in action next weekend when they travel to Regina Nov. 7-8.
