Molloy sees positives after tough loss to Griffins

CALGARY, ALTA., (Oct. 19, 2019) - The SAIT Trojans women's hockey team is still in search of their first win after the completion of their first weekend series of the year.

One day after falling 5-2 to the MacEwan Griffins, the Trojans played hosts on Saturday night, and were dealt a 5-1 loss by the same team in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) rematch at SAIT Arena.

"We did a lot of good things tonight, but MacEwan is a really good team," said Trojans head coach Tom Molloy. "I thought there were parts of the game where we were outplaying them, but then we took too many penalties."

SAIT falls to 0-2 on the season. The Griffins stay perfect at 4-0.

The first period gave fans a lot to cheer about, as the teams combined for four goals.

The first came from MacEwan when Shyla Kirwer beat Trojans goalie Cassidy Brown (1st year, Calgary, Health Fundamentals).

SAIT got that one back just over five minutes later when captain Tashel Scantlebury (5th year, Foxwarren, Man, Community Economic Development), fresh off a week in Montreal competing with the Trojans women's golf team at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) National Championships, fired a shot from the blueline that beat Griffins goalie Natalie Bender.

From there, however, it was all MacEwan.

Jill MacWilliam, Shyla Jans replied to put the visitors up 3-1 after the first period, and then Jamie Erickson and Vanessa Verbitsky scored in the third to round out the scoring.

SAIT will return to the ice next weekend when they take on the Red Deer College Queens in a home-and-home series.

"We'll get better," Molloy affirmed. "It's early on, and MacEwan is a tough draw in our first weekend out. They'll be tough on everyone, but last year we hung with them at the end of the season and this year, I think we have a better team."