Briercrest played with the same intensity coming from last night’s win in the opening period, fighting hard to battle against the MacEwan Griffins once again. They began on top as Yaremchuk from the Griffins received a penalty for high-sticking, which brought Briercrest their first power play of the game to score the first goal by Arlyn Semeschuk on a one-timer from Bryton Beattie. The Griffins answered back with a quick goal off a wrist shot top shelf by Brett Njaa, assisted by Gabriel Bystom. The period ended with Briercrest being outshot 19-5. Goaltender Dan Dekoning looked calm and composed despite being peppered with shots throughout the period, pulling through with only one goal allowed in the first.

The second period was the beginning of the excitement for Briercrest with the game going back and forth consistently. It began with a penalty to Briercrest, giving the Griffins the power play to pull ahead, until Briercrest skillfully killed the penalty. Unfortunately, two seconds after the power play, the Griffins took the lead early in the period with another goal making the score 2-1. Briercrest fought back hard with a short-handed goal by Ricky Seidel who received a beautiful breakaway pass from Luke Syrenne who had stolen it from the captain of the MacEwan Griffins. Continuing the pattern, the Griffins answered back a few minutes later with a shot through traffic to make the score 3-2. Jacob Baribeau then put the puck in the back of the net, assisted by Jordan Harder and Micah Abbott through the screen to make it a tie game, yet again. The Griffins scored with 28 seconds remaining in the period to pull ahead and put the pressure on for Briercrest to comeback in the last period and win the battle.

Starting the third with a power play for Briercrest, Josh Anderson scored the tying goal while sitting down with the assist from Jordan Harder and Josiah Friesen. The period simmered down throughout and the pace continue to slow down bit-by-bit with the game tied at 4-4 at a stalemate. Briercrest fought hard defensively to keep the puck out of their zone, but MacEwan had a turnaround and Jacob Scholfield scored a goal in the last two minutes of the game. Temperatures rose as the game came to a close when Briercrest pulled their goalie and even though they stood their ground, the MacEwan Griffins took the win.

Briercrest and MacEwan both came back today with a desire to win which you could see by the intense and aggressive game that they played. Although Briercrest fell short, it was a close game that ended in an unfortunate defeat. Briercrest’s Player of the Game went to Mark MacKinnon for a great defensive game.

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