Griffins generate fair share of Grade A chance but can't beat Fawcett in 4-0 loss to Spartans
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Team Stats
Trinity Western
| Game Statistics | Trinity Western | MacEwan University |
|---|---|---|
| PowerPlays | 0 for 1 | 0 for 1 |
| Shorthanded Goals | 0 | 0 |
| Penalties (min) | 1 (2) | 1 (2) |
| Shots on Goal | 29 | 25 |
| Face Offs Won | 0 | 0 |
Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – In terms of offensive chance generation, Friday night's performance ranks up there among the best the Griffins women's hockey team has had this season.
Unfortunately, they ran into a hot goaltender as Kate Fawcett turned aside all 25 shots sent her way in a 4-0 win for the visiting Trinity Western Spartans.
In reality, the margin between the teams was a lot closer than that, but MacEwan couldn't score and TWU got their fair share of bounces, along with an empty-net goal to salt away the win and improve to 12-12-1. MacEwan fell to 5-18-2.
"Based on our recent games, we had the most Grade A chances that we've had in the last little while here," said Griffins head coach Chris Leeming. "As a result of our forecheck, those chances were created. They came on the back of us hunting hard and attacking off those turnovers.
"Shot selection, we might have helped her out a bit there. Even the ones that were laying there, we still need to get bodies in around the net to pick up those secondary chances."
Trinity Western opened the scoring with 8:04 left in the first period when Presleigh Giesbrecht's point shot through traffic found its way past Mikayla Christmann, making just her third start of the season.
It would stand up as the game-winner when Fawcett posted her second shutout of 2025-26, highlighted by her best save of the night less than three minutes after TWU's opening goal when she robbed Ashton Bender with a pad stop on a point-blank one-timer in tight.
Fawcett also deftly parried away Megan Dolynchuk's hot shot off the rush in the third period that was labelled for the top corner with a quick blocker stop.
"Offensively, we focused on that this week and it was great to see them execute that, but still none of them crossed the line or made it into the back of the net at the end of the day for us. So, we've got to be a little bit hungrier and find a way to do that."
Trinity Western went up 2-0 in the second period on a bit of an unfortunate break for the Griffins when Dolynchuk prevented a one-timer with a great read to swat the puck away, only to have it bounce to Sadie Isfeld at the point where she slotted a low offering inside the right post.
The Spartans caught another break on the third goal when Kelsey Ledoux's point shot that may have been going wide deflected twice and past Christmann, who finished with 25 saves on 28 shots for the Griffins, none better than a paddle stop on Kara Yackel in the third period.
Mikayla Christmann robs Kara Yackel on a rebound chance in the third period (Derek Harback photo).
"Mik's been working her butt off all year and she's such a great teammate and great person," said Leeming of his third goaltender. "I thought she made the saves she needed to make overall. A couple beat her.
"I think the third goal got deflected off Kori (Paterson)'s foot and her stick. It might have even been missing the net. It hit two things and fooled her a little bit. I think she played her game and made the saves she needed to make for us."
In a bid to rally back, Leeming pulled his goaltender for an extra attacker with 6:11 left in the game. The Griffins managed to enjoy swaths of offensive zone time, but just couldn't find a way to score.
Trinity Western finally ended their pursuit of 6-on-5 success when Yackel hit the empty net from the red line with 2:25 remaining.
The teams will meet again on Saturday (3 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, Canada West TV) and Leeming is confident his group will have a response as they look to break a scoring drought that's now at 188 minutes, 17 seconds.
"I like the response that our team always has for Game 2, so I'm pretty confident we're going to reset and be able to have a good performance tomorrow," he said. "In chatting to the team there, we just threw it to them and they more or less said exactly what we were going to say to them anyways.
"It's great that they have that self awareness to know what needs to be done and it's just a matter of executing it. I think we're confident."
