Dinos sweep Griffins to advance to CW semifinals

EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins are learning some painful lessons on what it takes to win a playoff series.

One year after losing a heartbreaking three-game series against the UBC Thunderbirds that went the distance, the Griffins arguably outplayed the Calgary Dinos this year — but came up empty after a 4-1 loss on Saturday night at the Downtown Community Arena.

MacEwan held a 1-0 lead entering the third period and were keeping the Dinos in check, but Calgary scored twice in a 2:25 span and added two empty-netters to pull out the win and sweep the Griffins 2-0 in their best-of-three series.

"We were good at times, but I thought in the third period when they got that goal, there was zero push from us, and we were a bit deflated, but overall we were pretty darn good in this series," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey.

"We had a heartbreaker (playoff series) last year, and this year we played a more competitive series and didn't win a game. These are important lessons to learn down the road, and right now it sucks, but we'll be better off for it."

Caden Cabana scored the lone goal for MacEwan, while Carson Ironside made 22 saves in the loss.

Pavel Bocharov, Adam Kydd, Jake Poole and Logan Hauer talled for the Dinos, who will move on and face the Mount Royal Cougars in the Canada West semi-final.

Carl Tetachuk made 24 saves for Calgary in his ninth-career playoff win.

"This was a hard test, and playoff games are. It's the way our league is. It's one of the hardest leagues to score goals in, it's a hard league to win in, and to play and win a best-of-three on the road, I give our guys credit," said Dinos head coach Mark Howell.

"They dug in for the third period… and I thought the third period was the best we play all weekend."

The game was scoreless after the opening frame, but both teams had some decent scoring looks. MacEwan outshot Calgary 10-6, and were putting some good forechecking pressure on the Dinos blueliners.

The Griffins were rewarded with their strong forechecking pressure on Cabana's goal. The veteran forward leaped in the air and picked off a clearing attempt and walked into the slot and beat Tetachuk to give MacEwan a 1-0 lead at the 13:24 mark of the second period.

"We created a lot of good scoring chances, but weren't able to capitalize, and they have great goaltending, but it was a very competitive series, and I'm very proud of the group," said Dailey.

One night after the Griffins surrendered three power play goals, MacEwan's PK came up large in Game 2.

The Dinos had five power play chances in Game 2, and the Griffins were able to kill off all but one.

Unfortunately, Calgary's game-winner came on the power play. Moments after getting absolutely robbed by Ironside, who pushed off his post to deny Kydd with a big cross-crease save, he made no mistake, ripping home a shot over Ironside from the slot just over 30 seconds later.

Moments before the goal, Dinos defenceman Sean Strange looked to not be able to keep the puck in, but it was ruled onside.

A tough result on that power play, but the Griffins' PK stepped up big.

"The credit goes to Fran on our penalty kill today. He's in charge of that, and he made sure the guys knew their jobs and they executed, and I was really impressed with our group, when they stick to the structure, they're successful, and that was good to see today," said Dailey.

Special teams played a role in the series win for Calgary. The Dinos held an 8-2 advantage on the power play, and MacEwan had just one power play opportunity each game in the series.

After Calgary took the lead with Kydd's power play goal at the 5:41 mark of the third, it really turned momentum around.

"It's heartbreaking to be honest," said Ironside.

"I think we definitely deserved a better fate. We played two really good games, but that's the way hockey goes, it can be frustrating and upsetting, but we definitely can learn a lot from this and take it into next season.

"You have to give a ton of credit to them, they came out flying in the third, and they didn't roll over and we got on our heels a little bit."

Howell said he didn't like how his team committed so many turnovers in Game 1, and through the first two periods of Game 2, but he openly challenged them to be better in the third period on Saturday and they responded.

"The power play won us the game last night, and it won us the game again tonight," said Howell.

"I thought in the third period we didn't give them much. We got to the goal line and played more responsible hockey," said Howell.

While the series sweep hurts right now for MacEwan, the Griffins certainly have a lot to build on for next year. They will return almost the entire team, and after the success of hosting their first-ever playoff series now in the books, expectations will be even higher next season.

"Not only will it be an expectation to make the playoffs again, but we need to put that expectation in that we can win a playoff series. That's the next step for our group," said Dailey.

"It's about building that belief, and this series should give our group a lot of confidence. We have lots of positives to take away from this series and this year.

"This is statistically the best (year) we've had here at MacEwan, and a lot of these kids have done amazing things both individually and as a team this season. Now that we're done, it's time to celebrate some of these amazing kids and what they've accomplished."