By Kyle Legouffe

The Briercrest men’s hockey team traveled to Edmonton to take on the Concordia University College Thunder. Both teams came out hard and the game was filled with intensity with Concordia coming out on top with a 5-1 victory.

First year coach for Briercrest Dalton Stoltz will be looking to gain his first ACAC win when the Briercrest men’s hockey team plays game two against the Thunder tomorrow afternoon.

In the first saw Concordia come out and score two goals in under two minutes. The first was an unfortunate bounce that Briercrest goalie Jesse Chenard mishandled, the second goal came off the rush and was put past Chenard. Briercrest had 11 shots in the period with some that were in close and quality scoring chances. Very late in the frame the Thunder added a third goal and took a 3-0 lead into the dressing room. The period was penalty free which was a plus for Briercrest as they played a very discipline period of hockey.

The second 20 saw some goals and penalties. Concordia added to their lead as they put up the first goal of the period then Manuel Schellenberg was able to bang in a rebound from a point shot that came from captain Josh Dufrense. Dufrense also took a penalty late in the period as that was one of five penalties in the period, three for Concordia and two for Briercrest. The score after the stanza was 4-1.

The final frame was intense as both teams were getting involved in extracurricular activity after the whistle. Concordia ended up adding another goal in the period to go up 5-1. Briercrest took two penalties and Concordia took one in the stanza and they both were able do a good job killing them off. Jesse Chenard was able to come up big at points, making 42 saves, which kept Briercrest in the game.

Briercrest’s Manuel Schellenberg was awarded the player of the game and for Concordia Pat Kejdana was given the award for his two goals on the night.

The squad will look to battle hard again tomorrow as they will be playing game two of the weekend with Concordia University College at Confederation Arena with the puck dropping at 3:15 local time.