Trojans blanked by Ooks

EDMONTON, ALTA, (Feb. 15, 2019) — A short-handed SAIT Trojans men's hockey team saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end.

Playing against the first-place NAIT Ooks, the Trojans were blanked 2-0 in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game played in Alberta's capital.

"I thought we started slow in the first, and then played pretty hard in the second and third," said Trojans head coach Brent Devost. "We outshot them, but just didn't get to the inside on them. . . We didn't get enough second and third opportunities."

The loss drops SAIT's record to 16-6 on the year, and sends the team to third place in the ACAC standings – one point back of second place MacEwan University, and six points back of the now 19-6 Ooks.

The game-winning goal came just 2:01 into the first period when Shane Fraser scored on Trojans goalie Payton Lee.

NAIT added an empty-net marker late in the third period by Jake Mykitiuk to seal the win.

The absence of a host of forwards forced defenseman Estevan Hale (4th year, Calgary, Bachelor of Business Administration) to play up from his usual position.

The longtime rivals will finish up their weekend series Saturday night at SAIT at 7pm. The first semester saw the teams split their weekend set, and Devost is hoping history repeats itself again.

"If we put a good game together and capitalize on our opportunities, we should be successful," Devost said. "We'll look at making a few tweaks in order to start the game like we want to."