Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – The last remaining team the Griffins had yet to beat since joining Canada West in 2021 has fallen.
On Friday, MacEwan went into the Calgary Dinos' barn and handed them a 3-1 defeat, stopping a run of 11-straight losses they've had against them over the past four seasons.
With such a big win, their night would have been complete if their cross-town rivals had given them some help, but the Alberta Golden Bears couldn't get the job done against the Manitoba Bisons – losing 3-2 in overtime – which prevented MacEwan from clinching a playoff spot.
The Griffins, however, are still very much in the driver's seat. With the result, they improved to 10-12-3, remaining five points ahead of 8-15-2 Manitoba with three regular season games left for both teams.
Thus, the magic number is one (either a MacEwan win or a Manitoba regulation loss does it).
"We just want to be winning games down the stretch," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey. "Obviously, if we do that, we're going to find ourselves in the playoffs. So, definitely less worried about clinching and more worried about how we're playing. I think we're playing some pretty good hockey.
"Obviously, there are some things to clean up. But in terms of having a confident group, I think we're getting there with some of these wins against really good hockey teams. We're just focusing on continuing to play good hockey and if we do that, I think we'll like where we're at at the end of the regular season."
Goaltender Brett Epp is the biggest reason why the Griffins emerged with a win on Friday as he stopped 36 of 37 shots on a night MacEwan was outshot 37-17.
"He was solid for us," said Dailey. "I thought that in the first period there, we didn't play great. We turned over a whole bunch of pucks coming out of our D zone, which led to a whole bunch of chances against. He was solid for us, not giving up any goals there, holding us in and letting us settle into the game.
"I thought we played better after that."
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) February 8, 2025
Sam Simard gets the tip on Loeden Schaufler's shot to open the scoring just 52 seconds into the contest in #YYC pic.twitter.com/7sVHVUoscN
Samuel Simard opened the scoring for the Griffins just 52 seconds into the game when he tipped Loeden Schaufler's point shot past Carl Tetachuk.
After Jadon Joseph tied the game midway through the second period on the powerplay, Kadyn Chabot restored a one-goal Griffins' lead through 40 minutes when Liam Ryan's faceoff win went to his tape and he wired it home.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) February 8, 2025
Bang! Faceoff win by Liam Ryan and Kadyn Chabot wires home a snipe to give @MacEwanGriffins a 2-1 lead over @UCDinos after 40 minutes.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/iWibgeeFRG
With the Dinos threatening for the tying goal early in the third period, Dylan Anderson was whistled for holding, giving MacEwan a powerplay. Marc Pasemko won the draw and Vincent Scott played a give-and-go with Hunter Donohoe, who sifted a point shot through traffic for the insurance marker. It was the defenceman's first goal of the season after recording a program record-breaking 20 assists to date.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) February 8, 2025
After a record-breaking season with 20 assists so far, Hunter Donohoe finally has his first goal of 2024-25 and it's a huge one - the insurance marker in a 3-1 @MacEwanGriffins win!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/kfg8cBlStu
"Just kind of a security blanket," said Dailey of what the goal meant. "They were pushing pretty hard there and we were on our heels a little bit. Then the powerplay went out and executed. It just gave us a bit of a sigh of relief and let us just play.
"I think we just played, and we weren't gripping our sticks too tight. We just went and closed out a game."
The teams will meet again on Saturday in Edmonton (5 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
