Trojans fall 4-1 to Griffins

CALGARY, ALTA., (Nov. 15, 2019) - The SAIT Trojans men's hockey team opened their weekend with a loss.

On Friday night in front of their home crowd, the Trojans dropped a 4-1 decision to the three-time defending Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) champion MacEwan Griffins.

"I thought there were some good chances back and forth, the scoring chances were even," said Trojans head coach Tyler Drader. "I didn't feel like they were hemming us in our own zone often. They got a couple off the rush, so we have to do a better job on line changes and back checks. All in all, we had some good looks but you're not going to win many games scoring one goal."

SAIT falls to 4-2-1-2 on the season, while the Griffins improve to 6-3.

"We're a good hockey team, and they're a good hockey team," Drader added. "There are going to be close games between us. We just need to find a way to be on the right side of those."

After a scoreless first period, the teams pooled their efforts to score four times in the middle frame - three of those coming from the Griffins.

Kole Gable and Bryan Arneson put the visitors up 2-0 before SAIT's Jared Power (1st year, Calgary, Business Administration) cut the lead to 2-1.

Less than five minutes after Power's seventh of the season, Arneson scored his second of the game to give the Griffins a 3-1 lead going into the final period.

While the second period saw the lion's share of goals, it also saw a lot of physicality between the two teams. Plenty of post-whistle action and subsequent penalties slowed things down considerably.

Things stayed physical in the third period, with MacEwan landing the only marker - an empty-net goal from Cam Goats with just 21 seconds left.

SAIT goalie Kyle Dumba (1st year, Calgary, Business Administration) was busy all night, stopping 27 shots in the loss.

The teams will play the finale of their weekend set back in Edmonton on Saturday night. In the pre-season, the teams split a weekend set with each team winning in the other's arena. 

Drader is hoping for more of the same this time around, as his team tries to salvage the weekend.

"We know we can beat this team," he said. "They're a good team, so we have to be at the top of our game and a little more disciplined in our positioning and in not going to the penalty box."