Brenna Nicol parks on the doorstep in front of Brianna Sank on Friday. Sank stopped 30 of 33 shots she faced in a 3-2 Griffins loss (James Maclennan photo).
Brenna Nicol parks on the doorstep in front of Brianna Sank on Friday. Sank stopped 30 of 33 shots she faced in a 3-2 Griffins loss (James Maclennan photo).
January 25, 2025

Griffins take positive strides, but 3-2 loss to Manitoba eliminates them from playoff contention

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Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – While it was a solid step in the right direction, the Griffins women's hockey team needs to magnify what they did well in Friday's 3-2 loss to Manitoba and do more of it if they hope to find the win column and build some momentum for next season.

Both goals they scored were the result of crashing the net, something they've been working on vigorously in an attempt to up their league-worst offensive production.

Still, they fell short against a Manitoba Bisons team motivated by being locked in a tooth-and-nail race with Regina in a bid for home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

"That was one of our better games overall from start to finish," said Griffins head coach Chris Leeming. "A couple of the goals they scored were some breakdowns that we knew would be part of their game plan. They executed more times than we did at the end of the day."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 2-16-3 and have been officially eliminated from playoff contention. They trail Regina – keepers of third place in the Canada West East Division – by 15 points and only have seven games remaining.

Manitoba improves to 12-7-2, moving four points ahead of Regina – losers at UBC on Friday – for second, which is important as that spot earns a home playoff series in the first round.

Joie Simon opened the scoring for the Griffins midway through the first period on Friday, jumping on a turnover off a failed rim pass by the Bisons defence, and firing it on goaltender Emily Shippam. The initial save was made, but Simon punched the rebound home.

But the Bisons kept building, getting better as the game went on, and eventually they tied the contest early in the second period as Norah Collins' powerplay point shot was deflected in a looping arc up over Griffins goaltender Brianna Sank's head by Brenna Nicol.

Sank was keeping the Griffins in it with some huge saves, including flashing the leather to rob Julia Bird on a one-timer slapshot with 3:51 left in the second.

Eventually, though, the Bisons broke through for the leading goal just after a powerplay ended as Camryn Gillis' point shot chipped off traffic in front and changed direction just enough to elude Sank on the far side with 32.7 seconds left in the middle frame.

Early in the third period, the Bisons got an insurance marker that stood up as the game-winner as Sank stopped Gillis' point shot, but Aimee Patrick beat her check in front and tapped in the rebound.

MacEwan wasn't done, making things interesting when Kori Paterson tipped Shaelyn Hopkins' powerplay point blast past Shippam to draw the Griffins within one with 8:21 remaining.

Although they pulled Sank for an extra attacker with 40 seconds left, the Griffins couldn't find the equalizer. They were outshot 33-15 in the contest.

"I think we got two goals on 15 shots," said Leeming. "In order to generate more offence, we definitely need more pucks and bodies to the net. The two goals we scored were Joie going to the net and banging in a rebound and then a powerplay goal, just a low to high spread and a quick release shot with traffic net front. 

"So, if we can find a way to put more pucks there, maybe we get a few more in behind the goalie."

They'll try again on Saturday in the rematch against Manitoba (3 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV).