By Kyle Legouffe

Briercrest men’s hockey came out full of intensity and hard hitting against the defending ACAC champion Augustana Vikings, but the Vikings come out with the 9-2 victory.

Briercrest was not able to pick up their first win of the season despite showing spurts of intensity throughout the game. Head coach Dalton Stoltz is looking for his first career ACAC win as the bench boss of Briercrest. Stoltz and the team will get a chance to achieve their first win next weekend when they travel to Edmonton to take on the Grant MacEwan Griffins.

The opening stanza saw Briercrest unable to produce a shot until late in the period. Christian Mueller got the start and had four goals go behind him in the opening frame. Augustana outshot Briercrest 15-3 and outworked them in the offensive zone. There were only two penalties in the period as the Vikings took one for too many men on the ice and Briercrest’s Jordaan Braun took a minor for cross checking. Augustana took a 4-0 lead into the intermission after one period of play.

The middle frame had the Vikings score eleven seconds into the period and that was the goal that chased Mueller from the net. Jesse Chenard came in between the pipes and was standing on his head as the Vikings were storming around the crease. Augustana’s Jeremy Beirnes ran into Chenard, but he was able to get up and stay in the game. Manuel Schellenberg was able to pot a goal in the period as he received a pass from Austin Rock from behind the net and he was in the slot with his stick on the ice and buried his opportunity. The score after 40 minutes was 6-1 and Augustana outshot Briercrest 20-5.

The final 20 was full of penalties as there were nine called in the period. Briercrest’s Josh McGuire and Augustana’s Jeremy Beirnes went toe-to-toe as they dropped the mitts at the faceoff dot in Briercrest’s zone. The fight came about as a result of Beirne’s running of Chenard in the second and a questionable hit that was delivered by Beirnes earlier in the period. Josh Dufresne took two minor penalties, Braun had one and Luke Robitaille also made a trip to the sin bin. The Vikings potted three more goals in the frame and Briercrest added one, as Austin Rock was able to score his first career ACAC goal, the final score of the game was 9-2.  

Briercrest’s player of the game was Manuel Schellenberg and for Augustana Dan Hope was given the award.

The Christmas break is fast approaching as the squad has two weekends left before having a break for the holidays. The men will be in Edmonton to face off with the Grant MacEwan Griffins and then will finish the first half of the season at home as they host the SAIT Trojans.