Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Something had to give as one of the best powerplays in the country went against one of the top penalty killing units on Saturday night.
Unfortunately for the Griffins, the vaunted Mount Royal University Cougars' powerplay won out, scoring three times with the man advantage to post a 4-2 win at the Downtown Community Arena.
If there is a positive for the Griffins, they outscored the Cougars 1-0 during 5-on-5 play in a solid performance that was a great rebound from a flat outing the night before in a 4-1 loss in Calgary.
"I think we adjusted the game plan," said head coach Chris Leeming. "We threw it to the girls to take ownership of it and I thought they did that, for the most part.
"They executed on their powerplay tonight. I think they went 3-for-4 and that was the difference-maker for the game. Other than that, I liked our response from the game we had yesterday."
With the result, the Cougars improve to 11-3-0, while MacEwan falls to 2-12-0 in the Canada West standings.
MacEwan held an early 2-0 lead early in the contest on goals by Jennifer Andrash and Kori Paterson. Andrash went coast to coast 4:48 into the contest and beat MRU goaltender Scout Anderson with a backhand against the grain after a deke.
"I think Jenny's goal started when she made a great defensive play in our own zone and she got an opportunity out of it offensively," said Leeming. "We've talked about how that tends to happen. When we make good defensive plays, we're able to generate good offensive chances out of them."
Paterson then tipped Sydney Hughson's powerplay point one-timer past Anderson to give the Griffins a two-goal lead at 13:19.
"Powerplay goal – a nice shot with a screen in front from Kori," said Leeming. "Then (Makenna) Schuttler had a breakaway late in the game and just missed it with the backhand that would have put us up.
"I think there are a lot of opportunities that we could have buried."
MRU roared back to tie on powerplay goals by Jori Hansen-Young (17:48 of the first period) and Sydney Benko (9:04 of the second period).
Griffins goaltender Lindsey Johnson, in just her third start of the season, nearly stole the show for MacEwan as she came up with a number of big stops on the night, none better than a first period point-blank blocker stop on Benko who was all alone in front.
"She's someone who works really hard every day and strives to get better," said Leeming of Johnson, who made 23 saves in the contest. "She does a lot of little things well. I thought she kept us in the game there.
"That last powerplay goal through traffic off the post and in was a well-placed shot. Sometimes, the other team makes good plays at the end of the day. I thought she played well."
Indeed, Johnson had no chance on MRU's winner, which came off the stick of Emma Bergesen, whose point blast pinged the bar and hit mesh with 8:40 left.
Jordyn Hutt added an empty net goal with 1:19 left to salt the win away for MRU.
Next up for the Griffins is a home series vs. Regina on Nov. 24-25, while MRU visits Trinity Western on the same nights.
