Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – After making the last of his 35 saves with a couple seconds left, Eric Ward spilled the puck out of his glove to teammate Vincent Scott to avoid a whistle and launched into an epic celly in the corner as the clock struck zero.
For just the second time since joining Canada West in 2021, the Griffins knocked off the cross-town rival Alberta Golden Bears, surviving a third-period siege to score a 4-3 victory on Friday night at Clare Drake Arena.
"That was a really good effort by our guys," said MacEwan head coach Zack Dailey. "It's hard to come back from a break and be sharp and I thought they did a really good job of doing that. I'm really proud of their effort.
"You have to find a way to win, and I thought we did that in the third period. We scored a big goal, we had some good blocks and Wardo was quite good, too. Definitely proud of our group."
The win comes just over two years since their last triumph against the Golden Bears – also at Clare Drake – when Ashton Abel stopped 48 of 51 shots to steal a 4-3 overtime victory.
This time, MacEwan beat Alberta for the first time in regulation in a Canada West regular season game, improving to 8-7-2 in the standings, while dropping the Golden Bears to 13-4-0.
MHKY | MacEwan takes down Alberta!
— Canada West (@CanadaWest) January 4, 2025
What a finish at Clare Drake Arena ��@GriffinsMHKY fend off a frantic Golden Bears push and hold on for a 4-3 win over their crosstown rivals! @MacEwanGriffins x @USPORTSca pic.twitter.com/Cgkiykz6h9
Just as Abel was the story the last time they beat Alberta, Ward put his stamp on this win as the Griffins were outshot 38-23.
It was his first start since Nov. 16 after the third-year goaltender had fallen to third on the depth chart at the end of the first semester.
Talk about redemption.
"I think he was calm, and one thing is he was motivated," said Dailey. "Obviously, no one likes to sit and to miss games. The last weekend before Christmas, he wasn't happy that he wasn't playing and rightfully so. I just told him I need more consistent play. Instead of shutting down and being mad about it, he just worked extremely hard. He earned this start tonight and played very, very good.
"He had a little bit of extra bit of motivation and him being an Edmonton kid playing at the U of A, I'm sure that had something to do with it as well."
Eric Ward stopped 35 of 38 shots he faced on Friday in his first start in a month and a half (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
Rookie Ethan Sundar led the Griffins with two goals and three points, including potting the game-winner in the third period.
He had a terrific evening, opening the scoring 1:28 into the contest when he forced a turnover in the neutral zone to set up a 3-on-1 powerplay rush before executing a perfect give-and-go goal with Hunter Donohoe.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) January 4, 2025
Ethan Sundar opens the scoring at Clare Drake less than two minutes in on a beautiful give-and-go after a turnover!#GriffNation @MacEwanGriffins pic.twitter.com/YMdFZtthF3
That was the signature play that summed up his evening as Dailey challenged the highly-skilled St. Albert product to add strong defensive play to his game.
"I definitely don't want to hinder his skill because he's a very skilled hockey player, but I want to harness that and make sure that he's a little more controlled with his play," said the coach. "He's responded extremely well. And he's worked exceptionally hard. Not only was he great with the puck, but he was physical, he hunted pucks, and he got pucks back.
"It wasn't just an offensive game for him tonight, it was an all-around game, and I was really impressed."
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) January 4, 2025
Captain Sean Comrie restores the @MacEwanGriffins lead to 3-2 over @GBHKY as Ethan Sundar feeds him for his second point of the game!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/0a7N3aKzsf
Sundar also set up the Griffins' third goal of the game, stealing the puck behind the net after Alberta goaltender Ethan Kruger whiffed on a pass before feeding Sean Comrie for a one-timer.
Then, right after the Golden Bears hit a post, with 8:32 remaining, he wound up making no mistake a breakaway for the winning goal.
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) January 4, 2025
Ethan Sundar has himself a night, scoring the game-winner to complete a three-point game as the @MacEwanGriffins beat @GBHKY 4-3! pic.twitter.com/ehwFCVIvCE
That put MacEwan up 4-2 and there definitely could have been shades of their last meeting against Alberta Nov. 9 when the Griffins coughed up a 2-0 lead with just over three minutes left to lose 3-2 in overtime. They allowed one more to Sean Tschigerl, but didn't break.
"That could go one of two ways," said Dailey. "It could be 'oh, shoot, it's going to happen again.' Or it could be 'you know what, this happened before, let's learn from it.' I'm happy that the guys learned from it and came out on top.
"I just tried to get the message across that everything they'd been doing to that point will be the same things that will get us through the game. I didn't want them to tense up too much, I didn't want them to worry about losing, I just wanted them to play free and play hard. I thought they did an OK job of that in the third period."
GOAL��
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Hockey (@GriffinsMHKY) January 4, 2025
The sauce from Vinny Scott sends Marc Pasemko in for a snipe that nets the @MacEwanGriffins a 2-1 lead midway through the second at the Clare Drake!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/rVa8yLyFli
Marc Pasemko also scored for the Griffins, wiring home a sharp-angle blast off a great sauce pass from Scott in the second period. Donohoe drew an assist to finish with two helpers.
The teams will meet again on Saturday (5 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
"Obviously, we're happy we won, but we want to win two," said Dailey. "That's kind of our message is we did a great job, but it's not 'we're just happy winning one.' We're going to come and try our best.
"Obviously, they're going to be pretty upset that they lost, so they're going to come with a big effort, but the expectation is we compete hard again tomorrow."
