Posted: Feb 16, 2024
February 16, 2024
The hole was too deep... the mountain too steep... pick whichever metaphor fits: the Briercrest Clippers simply gave their opponent too much of a headstart and it cost them in the end.
Coming into the final regular season home games, the Clippers had an opportunity to clinch first place in the league standings with a sweep of the SAIT Trojans. Unfortunately, they didn't get into gear until midway through the game- and by that time the guests already had a 3-0 lead.
Briercrest could have packed it in at that point, but they are a resilient group and showed why they are the first-place team as they tilted the ice and started taking over the game. Some hard work by Theo Citrullo and Colton Aikens set the tone, and shortly afterward Daxton Budd scored to get the Clippers on the board. Tenacious forechecking followed, and Briercrest drew a penalty that was quickly converted by Reagan Poncelet as he took a perfect pass from Campbell Ens and tipped it home. All the momentum was with the Clippers and they made the shot clock look like a strobe light at times with prolonged offensive pressure.
The teams headed into the second intermission with SAIT clinging to a 3-2 lead, but that wouldn't last long... Curtis Wiebe outhustled a defender and forced him to take a penalty, and Brandon Kelly tied things up with a powerplay strike. It was then Jaedon Little's turn to outmuscle a Trojan and draw another penalty, and Colton took a great setup from Jacob Arsenault and Reagan Poncelet and ripped it past the goaltender for Briercrest's first lead of the night. The Barkman arena was rocking and it looked like the Clippers were in control, but an untimely giveaway moments later would allow the visitors to tie things up at 4-4 and the teams headed to overtime.
SAIT pounced immediately in overtime, winning the faceoff and scoring 16 seconds in to stun the crowd and come away with the 5-4 upset victory.
"We got out to a bit of a slow start," commented Briercrest's Derrick Lange afterward. "We found ourselves on the wrong side of it tonight."
Players of the game were Reagan Poncelet for the Clippers and Dylan Clark for the Trojans. Catch the rematch tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm.