Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
REGINA, Sask. – The games are meaningless in the standings at this point for the MacEwan Griffins men's hockey team, who'd already clinched a playoff spot before the final weekend of the regular season at Regina.
But with the Saskatchewan-based series on Friday and Saturday, they entered with a perfect chance to tune up their game and see it trending in the right direction ahead of a first round playoff match next weekend.
Instead, they put forth an effort they'd rather forget in a 5-3 loss to a Cougars team that entered the contest with only three previous wins on the season.
"I just think we thought it was going to be easy and we weren't prepared to do what it took to win a hockey game," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey. "Unfortunately, they're a good team and they work hard. If we don't work hard then we're not a successful team.
"I just think we took our foot off the gas once we got that lead and couldn't regain and recoup, and get our foot back on the gas."
The Griffins held a 3-1 lead in the game at one point in the first period, but couldn't score again after the game was 14:14 old. Nor could they keep the puck out of their own net as the Cougars scored four unanswered goals to spike the Griffins.
"It's tough," said Dailey. "I understand our standings can't change and the guys maybe look at this as a meaningless game. But we just need to have a more mature approach than that – take everything seriously and give our best effort because if we don't do that we leave it up to chance. And we're not going to win every time.
"But when we play seriously, play the correct way and we care, then we're a pretty good hockey team. That's again the message for tomorrow is we need to show up and put in a better effort in all aspects."
Caden Cabana, Brendan Boyle and Sean Comrie scored for the Griffins, while Brett Epp made 26 saves in the loss. Adam Evanoff stopped 31 of 24 for the Cougars.
The teams will meet again on Saturday (4 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).
As the Griffins aim to get their game back on track in the regular season finale, they now have their first round playoff opponent locked up. After UBC lost 4-0 to Calgary and Mount Royal whipped Trinity Western 8-0, the top of the West Division is decided. UBC will place second and host MacEwan, who are the East Division No. 3. So, the Griffins are off to Vancouver for a best-of-three series against the Thunderbirds Feb. 21-23.
MacEwan visited UBC on Nov. 1-2 of this season, earning a weekend split – a 6-1 loss followed by a 5-1 win.
