By Darryl Osborn

Augustana came out of the gate and put a lot of pressure on Briercrest winning  battles and earning a couple of early scoring chances and #28 Lukas Biensch capitalized on a turnover in the corner to take the early lead over Briercrest, assisted by #27 and #16. Briercrest amped up their intensity in response, which resulted in some very exciting end to end hockey. #19 Josiah Friesen skated hard and created a scoring chance for himself early in the period and another chance for #17 Alex Bechtold midway through the frame. The second half of the first period was exciting end to end action but the sustained intensity resulted in both teams starting to take penalties. Briercrest Goalie #1 Dan Dekoning made some key saves to keep the score 1-0 and Briercrest created some solid scoring chances of their own which Augustana goalie # 31 Curtis Skip battled through with some good saves.

 Augustana started the second period with a great PK and earned themselves a shorthanded scoring chance. Augustana took another penalty for interference and Briercrest #10 Josh Peters set up on the point and fired a couple of hard clappers. #28 Lukas Biensch blocked one of them but a few seconds later Peters found the back of the net with an absolute cannon of a shot, Assisted by #18 Micah Abbot and #7 Jacob Baribeau. Briercrest went on the penalty shortly after and Augustana scored off a 3-on-1 to go up 2-1. Near the midway point there was a big scramble in front of the Augustana goal and #31 made a massive save through a sea of bodies. Augustana increased their lead by another goal shortly after. Briercrest responded to the goal well with sustained pressure and created a couple of chances by #21 Bryton Beattie and #14 Jordan Harder, but couldn’t convert any of them. End of the second 3-1 for Augustana.

Briercrest began the final period on their heels and Augustana scored early on. Briercrest had some periods with good pressure but were unable to find the back of the net and the game started to get away from them with both teams starting to get a little bit heated and the penalties began to pile up. Briercrest goalie Dan Dekoning had some massive saves throughout the third but Augustana managed to find the back of the net three more times. As the tension started to boil over a scuffle ensued in the dying seconds of the game.

Players of the game were #6 Brett Ponich for Augustana with 1 goal and #7 Jacob Baribeau for Briercrest with 1 Assist.

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