CALGARY, ALTA., (Nov. 10, 2018) — The SAIT Trojans men’s hockey team felt their hard work was not rewarded on Friday night. That was not the case 24 hours later.
The Trojans scored three times in just over three minutes in the second period, as they defeated the NAIT Ooks 5-2 in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game Saturday night at SAIT Arena. The win comes a night after the Trojans fell 4-3 in Edmonton in a game head coach Brent Devost thought his team played great in.
“It’s nice when the outcome matches the process. It didn’t last night, but tonight it sure did,” he said. “We had a good game plan going in, the guys were executing it, and they were rewarded for it.”
SAIT moves to 7-3 on the season, while the Ooks fall to 6-4.
Also helping the Trojans on Saturday night was the standout play of goalie Payton Lee (2nd year, Cranbrook, BC, Power and Process Operations). He stopped 46 of 48 shots on Saturday to help his team earn the weekend split.
“Payton was great on Friday, and he was great again tonight,” Devost said.
Despite being outshot 16-7 in the opening period, it was the Trojans who scored the period’s only goal when Zach McNeill (2nd year, Calgary, Business Administration) buried one behind NAIT goalie Brenden Jensen.
In the second, Jensen faced just seven shots, but allowed three goals to SAIT’s Estian Coetzee (1st year, Fort McMurray, Alta., Academic Upgrading), Eric Krienke (2nd year, Calgary, Business Administration) and Colton McCarthy (3rd year, Salmon Arm, BC, Geographic Information Systems).
“The puck movement was outstanding,” Devost said of the trio of goals. “The guys were playing unselfishly, and it got them back on their heels and put us in the driver’s seat.”
McCarthy’s goal put the Trojans up 4-0 and signaled the end of the night for Jensen, as he was pulled in favor of Patrick Gora.
NAIT got one back halfway through the second when Brayden Harris finally solved Lee, but SAIT was able to get it right back three minutes later when
Parker Evans-Campbell (3rd year, High River, Alta., Bachelor of Business Administration) beat Gora.
NAIT scored the lone goal of the third period when Carson Beers cut the lead to 5-2. That’s as close as the Ooks would get, however.
As cliché as it sounds to ‘trust the process’, Devost says this weekend was a prime example of sticking to the game plan through good times and bad.
“I felt that on Friday, our guys were right there and doing a lot of great things, we were just not getting the bounces,” he said.
“After the first period tonight we could have been upset at being outshot, but we stayed calm and played our game and got the result we wanted.”
The Trojans return to action next weekend with a pair of games against the first-place Red Deer College Kings.
