Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Inconsistencies that bled into the MacEwan Griffins' game on Friday night turned into full blown maladies on Saturday.
After a strong first period, the Griffins were outgunned the rest of the way, falling 3-0 to the Alberta Pandas in Canada West women's hockey action at the Clare Drake Arena a day after losing 2-1 to them at home.
"We had a pretty strong first period," said Griffins interim head coach Chris Leeming. "We outshot them, and we had a lot of offensive zone time. But they responded to that. We didn't quite have the response we needed.
"Just going back to what I said yesterday is the consistency piece. Trying to play 60 minutes with our level of compete and level of enthusiasm was a big challenge for us today."
With the defeat, the Griffins fall to 1-3-0 on the campaign, while the Pandas improve to 3-1-0.
Alberta outshot MacEwan 28-15, but the Griffins were ahead in that department 6-2 after 20 minutes.
"We had a pretty strong first period," said Leeming. "You saw yesterday when we executed our forecheck, we created a lot of scoring chances for ourselves. They're a strong team and they responded well to us outplaying them in the first period. I think they had a better game overall in terms of consistency."
Kori Paterson battles for possession behind the Alberta net on Saturday (Matt Helfrich photo).
Danica Namaka and Natalie Kieser scored powerplay goals 10 minutes apart in the second period and Isabelle Lajoie capped the Pandas' night a third-period tally.
Halle Oswald made 15 saves for the shutout, while Brianna Sank stopped 25 of 28 for MacEwan.
"Even though we lost 3-0, I thought Sank had a pretty big game," said Leeming. "She made some key saves and kept the game close for us, so we actually had an opportunity to come back."
The Griffins will be back in action on Oct. 21 vs. Mount Royal University (7 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).
"We've got a bye weekend next week, so we're just looking forward to putting in some work so we can get back on track and hit the ground running when we get back in action," said Leeming.
