On the first day of Briercrest’s weekend of the ACAC Make Some Noise for Mental Health campaign, presented by RBC, the Briercrest hockey team had an exciting game against Concordia.

The teams came into this game with just a couple points apart in the ACAC standings; Concordia currently holds the last playoff spot with Briercrest only 4 points behind them.

The first period began with an unfortunate penalty against Briercrest that resulted in a power play opportunity for Concordia. With half of the power play expired, Concordia’s Rory Davidson found the back of the net with assists by Jordan Busch and Adam Wheeldon. The teams continued to battle hard. Concordia was putting on plenty of pressure which earned them another goal at 12:28 by Phil Dillon from Ian McLellan and Jordan Busch which made the score 2-0. Briercrest ended the period in a tough spot forcing them to battle that much harder in the remaining two periods.

Briercrest did a good job of killing off the penalty that carried over from the first and got a power play of their own shortly after. Concordia scored a short-handed goal at 3:59 from Adam Wheeldon which was unassisted. After two consecutive penalties by Briercrest, Concordia was able to capitalize on the power play with another goal from Adam Wheeldon. The goal came at the 12:19 mark of the second period and was assisted by Jordan Busch and Romano Morrison. Just over a minute later, Briercrest got their first goal scored by Josh Peters, assisted by Kailum Gervais and Josiah Friesen at 13:35. At 16:02, Concordia took an interference penalty and while on the power play, Tristan ‘Hermansauce' Hermanson cashed in with a nice goal from the slot; assists came from Bryton Beattie and Josh Anderson at 17:19. Briercrest received another penalty to end the period and began the third short-handed. After finding the back of the net a couple times, Briercrest went into the third looking to complete the comeback in the final period.

Briercrest began the third period with a great penalty kill which got them off to a good start. They continued executing well and were rewarded with a goal at 7:35 by Josiah Friesen from Josh Peters. The goal was a beautiful one-timer from the slot, top corner, right over the blocker. This closed the gap to just one goal with plenty of time left in the game. Concordia didn’t let up though, and got a goal at 14:24 to restore their two-goal lead. The goal was scored by Phil Dillon from Adam Wheeldon. Briercrest fought hard for the remainder of the game and with a couple minutes left, pulled their goalie. After having some quality chances in the offensive zone, Concordia found a way to clear the puck and got an empty-netter to seal the win.

The Players of the Game were Adam Wheeldon from Concordia and Josiah Friesen from Briercrest as he ended the night with one goal and one assist. It was a tough loss for Briercrest hockey, but they get another chance tomorrow at 2:00 pm for redemption.

For up to date information on the Briercrest Hockey team and Briercrest Athletics, “like” us on Facebook or at gobriercrest.ca. To watch games online go to acactv.ca