Griffins unable to beat Wilson for a second-straight night, losing 3-0 to Huskies
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
Team Stats
Saskatchewan
| Game Statistics | Saskatchewan | MacEwan University |
|---|---|---|
| PowerPlays | 2 for 3 | 0 for 2 |
| Shorthanded Goals | 1 | 0 |
| Penalties (min) | 2 (4) | 3 (6) |
| Shots on Goal | 28 | 23 |
| Face Offs Won | 0 | 0 |
Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Nothing they threw at goaltender Colby Wilson went in all weekend as the Griffins women's hockey team was blanked by the fourth-year tendy for a second-straight night Saturday in a 3-0 loss to the Saskatchewan Huskies.
On Saturday, the generated 23 shots – making for a weekend total of 50 – but Wilson stopped them all to post back-to-back shutouts.
It's the seventh time this season that the Griffins have been unable to score in a game as their record falls to 2-11-3 at the close of the first semester. Saskatchewan leapfrogs them in the Canada West East Division standings by improving to 2-10-4.
"We've got to find a way to execute and bear down with the scoring chances that we did," said Griffins head coach Chris Leeming. "We put 50, maybe 55 shots on their goalie this whole weekend, but I think she saw 50-55 of them. That's something we talk about and it's a matter of executing."
After beating the Griffins 1-0 in overtime on Friday night, the Huskies had even more jump to their game in the rematch as they hemmed MacEwan in their own zone for long stretches in the first period.
That eventually led to Brooklyn Stevely opening the scoring at 19:42 with a seeing-eye powerplay point shot through traffic. The game-winning goal never had to happen as the Griffins had multiple chances to get it out of their own zone but couldn't and got stuck with tired players on the ice.
The Huskies again capitalized on the powerplay at 9:28 of the second period to go up 2-0 when Paris Oleksyn jumped on a rebound off a point shot and chipped a sharp angle goal past a lunging Brianna Sank.
Saskatchewan then put the game out of reach at 3-0 at 13:54 of the middle frame when Sank left the puck behind the net for her defenceman, who overskated it, leaving Jayde Cadieux – in pursuit on a penalty kill forecheck – to scoop it up and wrap it around before Sank could get back in her net.
The Griffins had some decent chances to get on the board after that, but Wilson made point-blank stops on all of them, most notably on Sydney Jack, who had a late second period short side snipe labelled to go bar down before the goalie expertly shouldered it away from the RVH position.
The Griffins got some traffic in front of Saskatchewan goaltender Colby Wilson, but she still saw almost every shot they took on the weekend (Derek Harback photo).
"The reality is we started to play hockey when we were down 3-0," said Leeming. "We didn't start on time. We waited to start playing our game once it was 3-0. We got a couple looks. We can only go so far with some moral victories."
Sank finished with 25 saves for MacEwan in the loss.
The Griffins head into the semester break needing to find another gear if they're going to have any chance of chasing down a playoff position. They're 10 points back of Manitoba for the final post-season berth in the East Division and the Bisons have two games in hand.
"I think we definitely have more," said Leeming. "We've seen some strong games against some really strong programs. We take U of A to overtime and lose 1-0 (on Nov. 9); that's indicative of how good of a team we can be.
"I think that finding that sense of urgency and maybe desperation in our game is something we need to be more consistent with. This is a difficult league to play in and be successful in, and things aren't going to be handed to you. When you have that willingness and that mindset that we're going to come out and compete all 60 minutes on the ice, we give ourselves an opportunity to be successful."
The Griffins will be back in action on Jan. 3 vs. the Alberta Pandas (7 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
