Power Play Prowess Powers Dinos to Game1 Win

The MacEwan Griffins outshot the Calgary Dinos quite handily, and for the better part of 60 minutes were the better team, but they now trail their best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series 1-0, after Calgary earned a 6-4 victory, on Friday night at the Downtown Community Arena.

Calgary has one of the most potent power plays this season, and they made MacEwan pay, scoring three times on three opportunities in the win.

"I liked a lot of stuff today. Five-on-five, I thought we were great. We talked about the fact they've scored a third of their goals on the power play, and they have the second best power play in the league, we have to stay out of the box," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey.

"I wasn't super upset with the discipline. Taking three penalties is pretty average, but we have to execute better. We had a couple mistakes on the penalty kill that we need to clean up."

Hayden Pakkala scored twice including the game-winner on the power play late in the second period, and added an assist, while Brendan Lee also scored two goals to help pace the Dinos in the win.

Mack Stewart and Jake Poole added singles, while Carl Stankowski made 29 saves in the Game 1 win.

Myles Gauld, Ethan Sundar, Sam Simard and Dwayne Jean Jr all scored for the Griffins, while Brent Bamber added two assists in the loss for MacEwan.

"Our power play was good, but we're not going to win playing the way we played today. MacEwan did lots of good things, and we weren't great defensively, and we weren't playing playoff hockey. We had far too many turnovers," said Dinos head coach Mark Howell.

"We got the win, which is good, but we have to be a lot better than that, if we want to win a second game."

MacEwan jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 8:49 mark when Gauld jumped on a puck from behind the goal line and banked it in off of Stankowski's pad.

Just under three minutes later the Dinos would tie it at 1-1 with a power play marker from Lee after the veteran forward would beat Carson Ironside (14 saves) with a perfect shot from the slot through traffic.

Pakkala gave Calgary a 2-1 lead with 3:01 left when he made a nice move around a Griffins defender after a big hit in the neutral zone and beat Ironside over the blocker.

Then Lee came out from behind the net and took advantage of some open space in the slot just 2:13 later to give the visitors a 3-1 lead.

Despite finding themselves in a two-goal hole after 20 minutes, the Griffins didn't fold.

Sundar made it 3-2 at the 7:40 mark when his centering pass  banked in off the skate of Dinos defenceman Logen Hammett and past Stankowski, after a Dinos turnover inside the blueline.

Then Simard ripped an absolute cannon from the slot just 3:04 later off another turnover to tie the game at 3-3, and the Griffins had all kinds of momentum.

"They (MacEwan) have lots of forwards (who play) with some pace, and they can put you on your heels and when you don't manage the puck properly, they can make you pay, and they did that," said Howell.

Despite MacEwan's big shift in momentum, the Dinos found a way to get some of it back late in the second period, and they cashed in on two power play goals by Stewart and Pakkala just 3:19 apart to take a 5-3 lead.

While it had to be frustrating for MacEwan, they just continued to go to work in the third. They outshot the Dinos 15-5 in the third period.

Jean Jr. made a great individual effort on a highlight reel goal to make it 5-4 just 2:21 into the third, but Stankowski made several game-saving stops in the third to preserve the victory.

"The positive is, we showed no quit. We pushed right to the end, and we handled adversity well, so there were a lot of good things to build off of, but we have to figure out their power play," said Dailey.

"It's something this group has shown all year that regardless of the score, they're going to compete."

Despite the loss for MacEwan, they have to feel that if they can put forward a similar effort in Game 2 of the series, they'll have a chance to extend it the distance.

They handled adversity through several big moments in Game 1, but just couldn't get the equalizer, after a dominant third period.

"We're playing a really great hockey team, so there's going to be momentum shifts each way, and the better you handle those momentum shifts, the better you'll do, and I thought we did a decent job in that (in Game 1)," said Dailey.

"It came down to a couple of mistakes. Guys were in the wrong spots. Guys were blocking the wrong side of the net. They're a good team, and you can't make those mistakes."

Dailey said their biggest focus going into Game 2 will be to try and find a way to stop the Dinos lethal power play.

"We don't need to blow up our system and change (anything). It comes down to a couple subtle adjustments," said Dailey.

MacEwan and Calgary will play Game 2 on Saturday at 7 p.m. MT at the Downtown Community Arena.