Carson Ironside covers a puck with tons of traffic in front. He made 30 saves in the contest (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
Carson Ironside covers a puck with tons of traffic in front. He made 30 saves in the contest (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
November 9, 2024

Griffins were minutes away from win before conceding two late goals and losing in OT to Bears

Box Score

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – For nearly 57 minutes, the MacEwan Griffins played a brand of hockey that wins games. 

Sticks in lanes, pucks in deep, shots blocked, great goaltending and timely scoring.

Up 2-0 and almost able to almost taste their first home win over the rival Alberta Golden Bears since joining Canada West in 2021, the Griffins conceded two late goals and lost 3-2 in overtime – about the most heartbreaking defeat one could cook up – on Saturday night at the Downtown Community Arena.

"We're trying to move past the moral victories part, and this is just a disappointing loss," said MacEwan men's hockey head coach Zack Dailey. "Was it better than yesterday? Certainly. We did stuff a lot better, guys executed, skated, were committed and our goalie played very well for us. But at the same time, it doesn't matter who we're playing, if you have a two-goal lead with three minutes left and you lose, that's very disappointing."

Alberta's Josh Prokop scored with 3:07 left to pull Alberta within one before Jakin Smallwood tipped Mason Ward's point shot past Carson Ironside less than a minute later to force overtime.

Just eight seconds into the extra session, a lost draw put the Griffins on the back foot and Marc Lajoie fed Sean Tschigerl, who had all day to pick a spot under the bar on Ironside and deliver a heartbreaking result for MacEwan.

"Hopefully we take some positives out of this," said Dailey. "That is a very good hockey team. We played them pretty darn hard, that's great. But we need to find ways to close games. We missed blocks at the end there, didn't execute, didn't get pucks deep, our rush against wasn't very good. Definitely some stuff to clean up. 

"A disappointing end to a pretty darn good effort from the guys."

With the result, Alberta is now 9-1-0, atop the Canada West East Division standings, while MacEwan is 4-5-1, in third place.

The Griffins gained a 2-0 lead in the contest on a pair of first-period goals by Carter Chorney.

At 12:16 of the opening frame, rookie Ethan Sundar lugged the puck up from his own end, swung wide around a defender and crossed it back in to Chorney, who beat his man and beat Tyler Palmer back door.

The duo went back at it again at 18:36 when Sundar fed a streaking Chorney, who fended off his D-man again and tucked it between Palmer's legs.

"They made some exceptional plays," said Dailey. "But that's kind of the expectation. We know they're offensive players. My challenge with them was to make sure they're good in all three zones and I thought they were. 

"When you take care of the defensive side, you let your offence shine and that's what they did."

The second period show belonged to Ironside, who made two spectacular one-timer saves late in the frame, including robbing Aidan de la Gorgendiere with 1:34 left before stopping Smallwood in tight right before the horn.

It was a terrific response for Ironside, who finished with 30 saves a night after being pulled after allowing four goals in just over 12 minutes at Clare Drake Arena.

"I thought was quite good for us," said Dailey. "I thought in the second period, he was exceptional, made some huge saves to keep it a two-goal game. I also want to commend him for the mental toughness – a tough start yesterday, he got pulled in the first period, comes back starts and is great. 

"It shows a lot of character and mental toughness. He was really good for us tonight."    

Palmer stopped 20 of 22 for Alberta in the win.

Next up for the Griffins is a road trip to meet Trinity Western on Nov. 15-16.