Trojans can't close gap on Broncos in loss to Griffins
CALGARY, (Jan. 20, 2019) — The SAIT Trojans women's hockey team is running out of time.
Desperately in need of points if they want to extend their season to the playoffs, the Trojans fell 2-1 to the visiting MacEwan Griffins in their Wednesday afternoon Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game played inside the Campus Centre.
The game was originally to be played on Jan. 26, but the sudden and unfortunate passing of MacEwan Griffins men's hockey player Nakehko Lamothe the night before following a game at SAIT resulted in a postponement.
The Trojans fall to 6-16 on the season, and sit three points back of the Olds College Broncos for the fourth and final playoff spot with just two regular season games left. MacEwan improved to 15-5-2 and sit firmly in second place.
The Griffins scored the first period's only goal when Chantal Ricker found the back of the net with just 97 seconds left in the frame.
SAIT tied it up just over two minutes into the second on an odd series of events. After icing the puck, the Trojans went to face off in their own zone when the referee stopped things to send Davina McLeod (2nd year, Aklavik, NWT, Academic Upgrading) off the ice for not being on the ice when the icing occurred.
After a conversation with one of the linesman, McLeod skated off and on came Ashton Holmes (2nd year, Bassano, Alta., Academic Upgrading).
Seconds following the draw, Holmes broke free on a breakaway, and scored to tie the game before skating back to the bench once again.
MacEwan took back the lead with exactly nine minutes left in the final period when Amanda Murray hopped on a puck that bounced off a teammate and on to her stick. With SAIT goalie Elisha Oswald (3rd year, Waldersee, Man., Health Information Management out of position, Murray deposited the puck into the open net.
SAIT will finish up their regular season this weekend with a home-and-home series against the NAIT Ooks – Friday night at home, Saturday night in Edmonton.