Sam Simard celebrates after tapping in the overtime winner just before the final buzzer (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
Sam Simard celebrates after tapping in the overtime winner just before the final buzzer (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
October 26, 2024

Simard's overtime buzzer beater lifts Griffins to come-from-behind 4-3 win over Manitoba

Box Score

Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON — One attribute the MacEwan Griffins have shown this year is a 'No Quit' attitude, and it was certainly in the forefront on Saturday afternoon.

The Griffins found themselves down 1-0 and 3-2 to the visiting Manitoba Bisons, but found a way to battle back and earn a thrilling 4-3 OT win at the Downtown Community Arena.

Sam Simard hit the post in overtime, but got some redemption, tapping in the loose puck in the crease with 0.3 seconds left for the game-winning goal to improve the Griffins record to 3-3-0 this season.

Carter Chorney, Vincent Scott and Brendan Boyle also scored for MacEwan, while Eric Ward made 33 saves in his second start of the weekend for the Griffins.

Kian Calder, Jackson Arpin and Jonny Hooker tallied for the Bisons, who fell to 2-3-1 this season.

"I'm learning quickly that there is no quit in this group in our room, which is great to see," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey.

"We're not always going to be at our best, it's not always going to be pretty, but our guys never quit. They don't quit on me, they don't quit on each other, and the effort is always there."

The game definitely started off on the wrong foot for the Griffins, who fell behind 1-0 on a goal from Calder just 45 seconds after puck drop on Manitoba's first shot.

But the Griffins responded in a big way, getting on the board with Chorney's first goal of the season at the 5:36 mark – a snipe from the slot.

Just 29 seconds later, Scott scored his second of the season on a beautiful breakaway move on to give MacEwan a 2-1 lead.

Vincent Scott scored the Griffins' second goal on a beautiful breakaway move (Rebecca Chelmick photo).

But Manitoba found a way to tie it at 2-2 just before the first intermission as Arpin was able to jam home a loose puck on a rebound with 53 seconds left.

After Hooker gave Manitoba a 3-2 lead almost midway through the second period, the momentum started to shift towards the Bisons, but MacEwan grabbed that momentum back with Boyle's short-handed goal with 4:50 left in the second.

Griffins defenceman Hunter Donohoe made a strong shot block and then fed Boyle with a great pass down the wing, and Boyle used his speed to make a nice move. He was denied by Bisons goaltender Kolby Thornton on the initial shot, but he stayed patient and banged in the rebounds to tie it at 3-3.

"It all started with Donohoe in our pressure cue. Our PK has certain pressure cues that we haven't been specifically good at, but we hammered that pressure cue and created a turnover and we had a great individual effort by Boyle," said Dailey.

"He had to have some skill there to go from backhand to forehand, and some will to follow it up on the rebound. It was a great play by him."

Manitoba came out strong in the third period and tilted the ice in their favour, but defensively, the Griffins didn't give up many high-end scoring looks. The Bisons' best chance came off the stick of Eric Alarie from in close, but Ward pushed off his post and dove to make the save off his chest.

Griffins goaltender Eric Ward makes a high blocker stop in the third period. He finished with 33 saves for the Griffins (Rebecca Chelmick photo).

"We cleaned some stuff up. Execution can still use some work, and I thought in the third period they out-skated and out-competed us. Sometimes you're not at your best, but you got to find a way to win, and that's what we did today, and I'm proud of the group," said Dailey.

"That's our structure. We want to be really hard around our net front, and maybe give them a little more time and space outside the dots, and I thought maybe we gave them a little more time than I would've liked (in the third period), but we did a good job when pucks came into high danger areas to collapse and make it hard on them.

"There was some push back we saw, there was some sacrifice we saw. Certainly, there is some stuff to clean up, but we found a way to win, and that's what's important."

In OT, it was all MacEwan, who didn't allow Manitoba to even get a shot on net. They possessed the puck and stayed patient to try and find the opportunity for their best look.

In the dying seconds, Kadyn Chabot let a hard wrist shot go from the right face-off circle, and it squeaked through Thornton's pads, and Simard – who came close to ending it earlier in OT – was all alone to tap the loose puck in for the win.

"It was a great ending. That's something we worked on in our bye week was our three-on-three and four-on-four. A lot of it is being patient. You need patience, and you don't need to force stuff, and I was happy to see our guys get rewarded," said Dailey.

"One thing with this program is our effort is always good and we have really good kids. Yes, we will make mistakes, but I know they care, and they want to work towards it, and that 'no quit' effort is something we want to be known as a team – that we're hard to play against, we don't give up no matter if we're up or down, we're coming in waves. I'm happy to see that starting to form."