Tough bounce ends Trojans season
CALGARY, ALTA (MARCH 5, 2023) – To say the bounces did not go the way of the SAIT Trojans men's hockey team would be an understatement.
An errant bounce off the boards behind SAIT goaltender Boston Bilous ended up on the stick of Concordia University of Edmonton's Grayson Reid and into the open net to give the visiting Thunder a 4-3 overtime win, and more importantly, a 2-1 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) quarterfinal series victory on Sunday night at Winsport Arena.
This is the second consecutive season SAIT has fallen in the quarterfinal round. Last year, they were swep 2-0 by the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings.
Riding the high of their own overtime win Saturday night in Edmonton to tie the series at 1-1, the Trojans were able to strike quick in Game 3, as Kaden Hanas found himself in alone behind the Thunder defensemen and made no mistake, beating Griffin Bowerman to give his team the 1-0 lead. Shortly after, however, things got evened back up as Brandon Wallis intercepted a pass from Taden Rattie and beat Bilous high glove.
The Thunder built some clear momentum from Wallis' goal, as they generated a number of great scoring opportunities, but were denied time and time again by Bilous. However, their persistence eventually paid off, as Keegan Tiringer was able to put his team up 2-1 on a power play goal with Zach Cox in the box for tripping with just minutes remaining in the opening frame.
The Trojans appeared to tie things up early in the second, as McKenzie Welke fired a shot that beat Bowerman but rang iron before somehow rolling across the goal line and staying out. Thankfully for the Trojans sake, the missed opportunity wasn't costly as just minutes later on the power play Ty Carriere came off the half wall and ripped a shot past the blocker side of Bowerman to tie things up at two apiece.
Moments later, an unfortunate turn of events took place, as Hanas went in flying toward the Thunder net and took out Bowerman in the process. The 22-year-old netminder stayed down for some time before being helped off the ice by teammates and was replaced by Eric Ward. Coming in cold, Ward was tested right away and was forced to fish a puck out of his net early as Chase Miller beat him five hole on a breakaway to give the Trojans a 3-2 lead.
The Trojans then fell into penalty trouble, as Dylan Williamson was given a two-minute minor immediately after Miller's goal, and less than a minute afterward Tanner Sidaway received a five minute major and a game misconduct for a hit to the head. Thanks to some brilliant saves from Bilous, however, the Trojans were able to kill off both and headed into the final intermission with a one goal lead.
Roughly five minutes into the third period, the Thunder were able to draw even at three as Rylan Nivon tipped home a high point shot that Bilous stood no chance on. Several Trojans quickly looked to the referee in hopes of a high sticking call, but to no avail as all four on ice officials deemed it a good goal.
The Thunder nearly took the lead almost immediately afterward, but Bilous was able to come up with a huge stop on Hunter Leslie to keep things squared up. The two teams tightened things down afterward, playing a more defensive style as it was clear just how high the stakes were. Neither side was able to find the back of the net for the remainder of the third, making it the second straight game that these two needed extra time to decide things.
The Thunder didn't need much time to seal the deal and walk away with the series win, as just minutes into the overtime frame a dump in which Bilous came out of his net to play took a strange hop off the boards and popped out front, where Reid was waiting and deposited it into the empty net to end SAIT's season.
Reid and Hanas were named Players of the Game for their respective teams.