By Kyle Legouffe

Saturday, Oct. 20 marked the second home game for the Briercrest Men’s hockey team. Do to modular week, the crowd at Barkman Arena started out small during the first part of the hockey game. Briercrest got behind the eight ball early, as the NAIT Ooks jumped out to a 4-0 lead. The first period saw only one penalty and that was to Caleb Washington of Briercrest for kneeing.

The second period had only one goal scored to give the NAIT Ooks a 5-0 lead, but that did not mean there was not any excitement. In the middle frame there were a combined 72 minutes in penalties with five of those being 10-minute misconducts. The second period showed that Briercrest had some fight and would not back down in a challenge, as well as showing that teammates would stick up for one another when the time called for it. By this point in the game the crowd was larger and you could hear the energy that was coming from the screaming fans. Briercrest goalie Jesse Chenard faced 30 shots in the second period and was able to stop 29 of them. The saves that were made got the crowd fired up and showed that Briercrest will have the fans to support them this season.

The final period of the hockey game had NAIT score two goals to lead 7-0, but Briercrest’s Manuel Schellenberg was able to receive a pass from defenseman Josh Dufresne and bust in down the wing snapping off a shot far side over the shoulder of NAIT goaltender Shannon Szabados. This made the score 7-1 and NAIT tacked on an extra goal to make the final score 8-1. Despite the loss Briercrest was able to show that they will put up a fight figuratively and physically when it comes to playing any team in the ACAC.

For Schellenberg this was his first goal of the year after missing the first two games of the season due to injury. To begin the game he was playing on a line with Adam Voth and Branden Whitehawk, but Coach Stoltz shook up every line and Schellenberg centred the 3^rd line. This added some veteran leadership to the younger guys on the squad. With his one goal, along with the much needed size and strength that gave NAIT fits all weekend, he was named the ACAC Player of the Game for Briercrest. The Player of the Game for NAIT was Jordan Draper who put in one goal and added two assists.

Shannon Szabodos made 17 saves for NAIT in the win while Briercrest's Jesse Chenard made 61 saves in the loss.

Briercrest Hockey will be on the road next weekend as they travel to Fort McMurray to faceoff against the Keyano Huskies. Briercrest will be looking to grab their first win of the year and hopefully be able to get first year coach Dalton Stoltz his first ACAC win of his career.