Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
-With files from MRU Athletics
EDMONTON – After seeing their goaltender get run in the third period, the MacEwan Griffins made Mount Royal pay on the ensuing powerplay and spring-boarded off that to a huge 4-2 win over the U SPORTS No. 3-ranked Cougars on Saturday night.
Amanda Murray dove through the air to jam a rebound past MRU goaltender Scout Anderson with 7:21 remaining to record not only MacEwan's first powerplay goal of the season, but the game winner.
"The game-winning goal was on the powerplay, but it was a second effort," said Griffins interim women's hockey head coach Chris Leeming. "Murrs left her feet and dove for a puck, got a stick on it and it went in the back of the net.
"It was just a really encouraging to see the girls weren't discouraged from yesterday and gave second efforts and were relentless."
It would have been easier for the Griffins to settle for a moral victory against a Cougars team sitting atop the Canada West standings, especially after losing 3-1 to them on Friday at home.
Instead, they came out and outworked them with perhaps their finest effort of the season.
"I just think we were really committed and focused for 60 minutes," said Leeming. "We've talked about the issue of consistency, and I thought we had that from start to finish. We discussed having some urgency and not waiting until the third period to start competing when we were down. I thought from the start of the game, the girls were ready to go.
"We sacrificed a lot; in the final few minutes we had four or five blocked shots. (Brianna) Sank got ran tonight and sustained a bit of an injury, but she stuck it out, played the rest of the way and made a couple of saves to keep us in the game. Overall, it was a team win."
MRU's Allee Gerrard bowled into Sank midway through the third period and was assessed a five-minute charging major and game misconduct. At the time, the game was tied 2-2.
But after Murray scored on the powerplay, the Griffins got an insurance marker from Hailey Maurice with 3:44 left.
Rylee Gluska and Sydney Hughson also scored for MacEwan, who moved to 2-4-0 in the standings.
"Everyone's pretty positive right now and obviously relishing the victory," said Leeming. "But at the end of the day our focus is just being in the moment and focusing on our process. When we get outcome-focused, it kind of derails our focus a bit."
That process saw the Griffins produce some much-needed offence; with four goals, they're now up to 10 in six games – still on the light side, but it's a start.
"We score a couple second-effort goals and a few were just off-the-rush plays – a quick pass and a quick release. It's stuff we've worked on, so it was good. I think any time we can score some goals it's fun. Scoring's fun, but it's also difficult. It was nice for them to finally see some success, dialing into the things that we've worked on the last little while here."
Sank made 19 saves for the win, while Anderson took the loss with 12 stops.
Next up, the Griffins will host UBC for a pair of games next weekend.
