Johnson stands tall with 26 saves, but Griffins unable to generate much in five-shot loss to MRU
Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – Very rarely would a hockey team stand a chance to win when they only put five shots on net.
That's the situation the Griffins found themselves in on Friday as they didn't generate much against Mount Royal before falling 2-0.
Lindsey Johnson had a heroic effort with 26 saves on 28 shots, but there is only so much a goalie can do.
"I think at the end of the day, she did her job," said Griffins head coach Chris Leeming. "We need to show up as a group overall and support each other because the way to win games is to play connected and have a full team effort for 60 minutes."
Unfortunately, that didn't happen for the Griffins, who were outshot nearly 6-1 in the contest.
"We definitely didn't play the way we're capable of playing for the first 40 minutes and then showed some glimpses of it in the last 20," said Leeming. "We've got a lot more than that. We need to bring a lot more than what we did today."
Johnson was the bright spot, only getting beat on a powerplay goal by Sydney Benko in the second period before Benko scored again on a weird one 41 seconds into the third.
"I thought Jonny had a very solid game," said Leeming. "It was a powerplay goal that got redirected and then the second goal was a D to D pass and it hit someone's skate and popped up over her. No one even saw that it went in. It was just a complete fluke goal."
Scout Anderson had a five-save shutout for the Cougars, who are now 3-2-0, while MacEwan drops to 0-5-0.
The teams will meet again on Saturday in Edmonton (5 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
