SAIT Edges the Clippers in Briercrest's Home Opener

by Sam Demoskoff and Jeremy Demoskoff

"Not the outcome we wanted, but back at it tomorrow." The words of the Clipper's Cole Stevenson as he summarized a razor-thin loss to the SAIT Trojans in Briercrest's first regular season home game in nearly two years. 

That steely resolve characterized the home team's mindset from the drop of the puck, and they came out skating, hitting, and creating multiple chances early in the contest. Some hard forechecking by Colton Aikens and Zach Anderson yielded a turnover by the SAIT goaltender, and Stevenson found the back of the net to ignite the crowd and put the hosts up by one.

SAIT responded by applying some pressure and pinning the Clippers in their own zone, but Dominik Tmej was stellar in turning away several quality shots from the guests. Fans were treated to fast, tight-checking hockey as the home side contested every square inch of ice and matched SAIT shot for shot. Of particular delight to the fans was some quick thinking on Briercrest's bench after a Clipper forward broke his stick and created a turnover in the offensive zone. As he raced back defensively, a new stick was tossed with Jedi-like accuracy into his waiting hands and he helped break up a threatening play.

The visitors managed to tie things up late in the period and headed into the first intermission knotted at one. 

Briercrest showed no lull in effort to open the middle frame and they were rewarded with a beautiful goal off the rush as Curtis Wiebe and Reagan Poncelet set up Caleb Dolman, who restored the lead with a laser past SAIT's Trevor Martin. The Clippers then had an opportunity to take control of the game with a lengthy 5 on 3 man advantage, but SAIT was excellent on the penalty kill and managed to keep the game within one. Another late period goal for SAIT evened things up after 40 minutes.

Briercrest started fast in the third period and continued to forecheck hard. Caleb Grandfield hit the post from a sharp angle, and the Clippers moved the puck crisply as they threatened to hand SAIT their first loss of the season. Tmej turned aside a 2 on 0 break, and the intensity of the game increased as Briercrest continued to be physically assertive. 

SAIT's Joren Patenaude made a good play on the boards and managed to put his team ahead with a post-and-in shot off the rush. The Clippers attacked in waves as they tried to get the late equalizer, and came very close to doing so. They took some paint off the crossbar behind Martin and later had the puck inches from the goal line on a rebound, but the Trojans held on for the 3-2 win.

SAIT's head coach, Tyler Drader, reflected on matching up against the Clippers. "Briercrest is a really good team- they are a hard team to handle and they work hard. The margin of error can be real close."

Cole Stevenson was the player of the game for Briercrest, while Joren Patenaude took the honours for the Trojans. Catch Saturday's rematch at 2:30.