Missed opportunities cost Trojans
CALGARY, ALTA., (Nov. 16, 2018) — The SAIT Trojans women's hockey team had their chances, but could not bury them Friday night.
Three first-period breakaways that were turned aside came back to haunt the Trojans, as they were beaten 6-2 by the visiting MacEwan Griffins in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game played at SAIT Arena.
"We are not a team who get a ton of chances like that, so when we do, we have to bury them. That needs to happen, and it didn't tonight," said Trojans head coach Kelsey Leifson. "MacEwan is a good hockey team, so we know they're going to gain momentum from those missed chances."
SAIT falls to 1-10 on the season. MacEwan improves to a league-best 9-2.
The early chances may have come as a result of the delayed arrival to SAIT Arena by the Griffins due to snowy highway conditions that slowed them down.
Despite a lack of prep time and pre-game skate, the Griffins led 1-0 after the first period on a goal by Shyla Kirwer that was scored 2:26 into the opening frame.
"They came in with no off-ice or on-ice warm up," she said. "We know that after the first period, they were saying to themselves, 'That was our warm up. We're ready to play now.'"
And they were.
The Griffins scored three more times in the second period off the sticks of Chantal Ricker, Amanda Murray and Nikki Reimer.
SAIT took a little momentum into the third when Kelsey Patterson (1st year, Castlegar, BC, Civil Engineering Technology) scored with 10 seconds left in the second period to cut the lead to 4-1.
In the third, Reimer added her second of the game before SAIT's Lexie Shumate (2nd year, St. Albert, Alta., Rehabilitation Therapy Assistant) scored her team's second and final goal of the contest.
MacEwan's Shyla Jans scored with just over a minute left to cement the win.
The Trojans and Griffins will finish their weekend set tomorrow night in Edmonton, Alta.
"Our power play got going a little bit tonight, so there are some positives to take out of tonight," Leifson finished. "If we stick to our game plan, we can find some success, it's just a matter of gearing down and actually doing it."
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