Clippers Silence Thunder in Series Opener

By Sam and Jeremy Demoskoff

The Briercrest Clippers were consistent, disciplined, and harder working as they simply outplayed the visiting Concordia Thunder en route to a 5-2 victory Friday evening.

"We had our feet moving all night," said Briercrest's player of the game, Jaedon Little, afterward. "I thought we did a really good job of keeping things simple."

Both he and goaltender Dominik Tmej led the way for the home team as a series of glove saves kept the guests at bay long enough for Little to score both the game winner and an insurance marker.

The evening started out rather feisty as the teams traded hits and penalties early. In his first game back after an abbreviated "retirement", Trey Doell toe-dragged around a Thunder defender before opening the scoring with a top-shelf laser. The visitors tied things up a few minutes later thanks to some solid work by their player of the game, Zach Carlson, but Caleb Grandfield scored on a feed from Colton Aikens and Cole Stevenson to retake the lead.

From there, Briercrest clamped down defensively and created waves of pressure as Jake Dale and Halen Cordoni had dangerous scoring chances. The icing on the cake came near the end of the third period with Josh Wiens sending a pass to Campbell Ens from his backside- Ens rifled it home to make it 5-2 in favour of the Clippers. 

"We needed [this win]," reflected Ens. "We split with them last semester so hopefully we can get the two points tomorrow."

Watch the Clippers try to do that tomorrow as they host the Thunder for the rematch at 2:00.