Trojans fall in Camrose, Game 3 set for Sunday

CAMROSE, ALTA., (March 7, 2020) - It all comes down to Sunday.

The SAIT Trojans men's hockey team fell 2-1 Saturday afternoon in Game 2 of their best-of-three Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) quarterfinal series played in Camrose, Alta.

The Trojans took Game 1 on Friday night with a 4-3 double overtime win, so a deciding Game 3 will be played at 5pm Sunday back at SAIT Arena.

"It's the playoffs, and it's tight. We just need to find a way to pull it out tomorrow," said Trojans head coach Tyler Drader following the game. "It just wasn't meant to be tonight."

Game 3 is nothing new to these teams, as just last season, they went the distance in a quarterfinal series that SAIT was able to win before going on to fall to NAIT in the semifinal.

As expected, Saturday's game was pretty evenly matched. SAIT controlled the play in a first period that ended in a 0-0 tie.

Augustana responded by playing considerably better in a second period in which both teams scored once - Travis Mayan for the Vikings and Mark Drohan (1st year, Calgary, Academic Upgrading) by SAIT.

In the third period, both teams had chances, but it wasn't until a fluke play settled things.

Just over three minutes into the third period, a face-off was held to the left of SAIT goalie Kyle Dumba (1st year, Calgary, Business Administration). Augustana won the draw, and Mayan looked to pass the puck to a teammate before the puck hit the skate of someone in the hash marks and was re-directed between Dumba's pads.

"That's hockey," said Drader. "You have to create your own bounces, but it's hard to create opportunities for yourself when you're spending the entire game in the penalty box. . . It just takes away from any momentum you have."

As for Drader's message to his team going into Sunday's game?

"Win the game," he said.