Trojans fall to Vikings

CALGARY, ALTA., (Feb. 20, 2020) - The SAIT Trojans men's hockey team found themselves playing catch up all game long.

In a rare Thursday night Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game, the Trojans were dropped 7-4 by the visiting University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings in their game played inside SAIT's Campus Centre.

SAIT's loss drops their record to 12-9-1-3 while Augustana improves to 11-13-1.

The finale of their weekend series will have a considerably different feel, as the teams will be playing outdoors in the Falun Outdoor Classic on Saturday afternoon at 1pm. 

The game will be played 30 minutes west of Camrose, Alta., at the Wetaskiwin Civic Centre.

Despite being handed a man-advantage situation less than two minutes into the game, it was SAIT who gave up the first goal of the game after some miscommunication at the Vikings blueline led to a 2-on-1 the other way. 

Augustana's Cody Fiala kept the puck and beat Trojans net minder Kyle Dumba (1st year, Calgary, Business Administration) for a short-handed goal.

Just over five minutes later, the Vikings added to their lead when Adam Osczevski beat Dumba.

SAIT finally got on the board just over 10 minutes into the period when Eric Krienke (3rd year, Calgary, Business Administration) one-timed a pass from Jared Power (1st year, Calgary, Business Administration) past Vikings goalie Zach deGraves. 

However, the Vikings restored that lead after a tired Trojans bunch got caught on the ice too long. That led to a rebound being banged in by Augustana's Jarod Hovde to make it 3-1.

In the second period, the Vikings and Trojans took turns combining for four more goals - Owen Lamb and Lukas Biensch for Augustana, Power and Cory Santoro (3rd year, Kelowna, BC, Bachelor of Business Administration) for SAIT.

In the final period, again the Vikings were the first to strike, getting a goal from 

Carter Danczak just over three minutes in.

SAIT received a late goal from Mark Drohan (1st year, Calgary, Academic Upgrading) to cut the lead to 6-4, but that's as close as things would get, as Ryan Groom would score for the Vikings into an empty net with 73 seconds remaining to cement the win for the visitors.