2024/03/08

The stage was set, the teams were raring to go, and it was standing room only at the Barkman arena as the Briercrest Clippers hosted the Concordia Thunder for game one of the ACAC playoff semi-finals. Unfortunately, the guests put the party off for another night as they came away with a 3-1 win.

As the number one seed, the Clippers enjoyed a bye in the first round while the Thunder edged the NAIT Ooks two games to one in their quarterfinal series. Briercrest's game plan was the same as it's been all year- play hardworking defensive hockey and capitalize on their opportunities. In the first period, the Clippers were checking well, skating hard, and creating some dangerous scoring chances for Cole Stevenson and Austin Arsenault. Concordia proved a resilient foe, however, as they rode the hot goaltending of their player of the game, Ashton Billesberger, and survived several waves of pressure to keep the game scoreless after the first period.

The teams traded powerplay opportunities in the middle frame, and Concordia made the most of a rare defensive lapse by the Clippers as they scored twice in 11 seconds to jump out into the lead. Dominik Tmej kept Briercrest from being in a bigger hole as the team collected itself after the swing in momentum.

The Clippers came out hard in the third with great chances from Zach Thususka and Ryan Miley that forced more brilliance out of Billesberger. Jake Dale hit the post, and the Clippers kept searching for an answer. As has been the case all season, gutsy hard work paid off as Miley beat out a Concordia attacker to preserve an icing call, and the Clippers won possession on the ensuing faceoff. They cycled the puck to player of the game Campbell Ens, who fired it past Billesberger to cut the lead down to one.

Briercrest pressed for the equalizer, peppering shot after shot as time ticked down, but they couldn't find another goal and the Thunder put things away with a late empty-netter.

"[There'll be a] big pushback from them," remarked Concordia's captain Brandon Wallis after the game. "They're not going to quit - they're a very hardworking team and they don't want to lose."

Catch game two Saturday night at 7:00 at the Barkman arena, or on ACAC's streaming service.