By Kyle Legouffe

This weekend marks the end of the 2012-2013 season for Briercrest Hockey. Tonight they hosted the Grant MacEwan Griffins in hopes of spoiling their playoff hopes. They were not able to come away with the victory, as the final score was 7-1.

Jesse Chenard entered the final weekend with the most saves in a single season as well as the most saves in a career. He has shown veteran leadership on and off the ice as the season has gone on. The rest of the team has gone through ups and downs during the season as they dealt with new systems and a relatively young squad.

The opening frame was one that had tons of hitting as both teams were looking to show their dominance out on the ice. There were only two minor penalties called in the period, with one going to each team. Grant MacEwan’s Matthew Peddie took a hooking minor and Briercrest’s Kyle Golz also was given two minutes for hooking. Grant MacEwan was able to capitalize on their power play opportunity as that opened the scoring. It was on a defensive breakdown that MacEwan added their second goal, that is the lead they took into the dressing room after 20 minutes. The shots were 14-10 for MacEwan.

The middle period was rough as both teams involved themselves in extracurricular activity after the whistle. The frame saw Briercrest able to score once, as Lucas Ford was able to score on the power play. The Griffins added five goals to their first period total and took a 7-1 lead into the locker room. MacEwan also outshot Briercrest in the period by the count of 19-3. Jesse Chenard was able to make some good saves, but also seemed at times to be battling the puck.

The final 20 was just as rough as the first two periods as both teams were taking the body with authority. There were five penalties handed out in the period with MacEwan taking three and Briercrest took two. There was no scoring in the period as the shots were 10-7 for Briercrest and the total shots were 40-22 for Grant MacEwan.  

The player of the game awards were handed out to Shawn Proulx of Grant MacEwan and Lucas Ford of Briercrest.

The next game will be tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 pm at Barkman Arena. If you cannot make it to the game you will be able to see a live stream at www.sportscanada.tv or find intermission updates on the Briercrest Hockey Facebook page.