Griffins Edge out Clippers to take the first game

The Briercrest College Clippers opened up the season on Friday night at the Barkman Arena. Playing previous two-year defending champs, the Grant MacEwan Griffins. The two teams played in a one way, but hard-fought game. With the Griffins coming out on top with a 9-1 victory. 

Grant MacEwan Griffins opened up the scoring in mid period from #7 Nolan Yaremchuk, assisted from #3 Taylor Bilyk and #6 Andrew Kartusch. The Griffins pulled off another two quick ones in just over a minute apart, scoring for the Griffins was #21 Brett Njaa and #19 Cam Gotaas. Near the end of the period, MacEwan's #19 Cam Gotaas scored his second of the night off of a deflection from #10 Cameron Reagan. Taking a 4-0 lead against the Briercrest Clippers into the 1^st intermission.

In the 2^nd period, the Griffins kept battling, increasing the score off the bat to 5-0 from #19 Cam Gotaas, earning his hat trick goal. Despite the efforts from the Clippers, the Griffins offense was unstoppable, ending the 2^nd period with a 7-0 lead. Clippers goalie, #40 Dan Dekoning took on 50 shots going into the intermission after two periods of play.

The last period of play was tight, with a pair of goals being scored from the Griffins, #18 Nicolas Correale scored in the period, and another goal was scored by #21 Brett Njaa. The Clippers did score in the last minutes of the game, #20 Russel Olson put Briercrest on the board. After going back and forth throughout the period, the final score ended up being 9-1.

The player of the game from the Briercrest Clippers was #20 Russel Olson, scoring the lone goal for the Clippers. And for the Griffins, #19 Cam Gotaas was the player of the game, scoring 3 goals with an assist.