Griffins run into hot goalie, eke out 3-2 win
Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Hustle, details, speed, shots … you name it, the Griffins women's hockey team had it going on Saturday night.
If not for opposing goaltender Nikki Grandinetti, they would have run up the score something fierce.
Instead, they settled for a pulse-stopping 3-2 victory at the Downtown Community Arena over the Olds College Broncos after the Coquitlam, B.C. product made 37 saves.
"It was frustrating for sure," said Griffins forward Shyla Jans, who had two assists. "But in those moments you've just got to keep going through and putting pucks through to the net."
Jans herself had two point-blank shots stopped in the final few minutes.
MacEwan had the Broncos under siege for much of the opening two periods and Grandinetti kept the score from reaching 5 or 6-nil. None of her saves was better than when she robbed Chantal Ricker late in the second, getting a quick right pad on a one-timer from the right circle.
"She had an excellent game," marveled Griffins head coach Lindsay McAlpine. "We had a couple of point-blank opportunities where she got across the net and then on the PP, a couple of unbelievable saves."
MacEwan spent the first 40 minutes of the game building a 3-0 lead on first-period tallies by Dominique Scheurer and Nikki Reimer, and a short-handed backhand goal at 7:49 of the second by Shanya Shwetz off a nice feed from Michelle Pochapsky.
Finally, Grandinetti's teammates responded by taking the play to the Griffins early in the third period, scoring twice in the first 4:05. Chelsea Broadhead roofed it from an impossible angle past MacEwan goalie Courtney Beierbach, followed by Cassidy Holt's snapshot goal from the high slot.
Suddenly life was a lot tougher for MacEwan as they had to buckle down to close out a game they thoroughly dominated.
"We were scrambly to being the period and that's how they got their two goals, I believe," said Jans. "We just took a look at how we were playing. We played calm and collected after 20 minutes or so and started doing the little things again."
The fact they were able to secure the two points is a key moment in the Griffins' development, especially after they had some lapses in a 4-3 loss in Olds on Thursday.
"We're a young team and I think that sometimes shows for us," said McAlpine. "We played still a little bit anxious and a little bit nervous going into the third period with a 3-0 lead. So we talked about learning to play well with a lead and without a lead, so it's a good learning opportunity for us and good that we were able to hold them off and take the two points."
Next up for the Griffins (3-1-0-0) is a series with NAIT (4-0-0-0. They'll visit the first-place Ooks on Friday (7 p.m., NAIT Arena) before hosting them on Saturday (6 p.m., Downtown Community Arena).