Ooks defeat Trojans 7-2, to advance to the ACAC Championship.
EDMONTON, ALTA.- The NAIT Ooks make a statement by blowing out the SAIT Trojans 7-2 in game three of the ACAC Men's Hockey Semifinal, punching their ticket to the Championship series where they will face the MacEwan University Griffins.
The game was all NAIT from start to finish as they scored early and often. The line of Jake Mykitiuk, Brayden Harris and Jesse Roach combined for two beautiful tic-tac-toe goals to begin the game. Tanner Dunkle would then be on the tail end of some great puck movement on the powerplay to put the Ooks up 3-0 through twenty minutes.
In the second period, things got heated. In fact, there were five goals scored and all of them were on the power play because there was very little time spent at even strength. Brandon Ralph and Jordan Davies scored for NAIT to give them a 5-0 lead. SAIT would get on the board, but the Ooks scored twice more before the end of the period. NAIT led 7-1 through two periods of play.
In the third period, both teams seemed to calm down. SAIT scored once to make it 7-2, but the period was rather uneventful until the end of the game. With three minutes left, Trojans' Colton McCarthy ran Ooks' goalie Brendan Jensen after Jensen played the puck. Jensen would be forced to leave the game, while McCarthy would receive a match penalty. There was some expected clutching and grabbing as the game wrapped up but nothing too serious.
The NAIT Ooks would go on to win 7-2, taking the series 2-1 and advancing to the ACAC Men's Hockey Championship series for the eighth straight season where they will face the MacEwan University Griffins for the third consecutive year.
"I thought we played with good speed in the first, which helped us get out to the early lead," said NAIT head coach Tim Fragle. "I liked our powerplay tonight. We changed a few things up and found some success that we can take moving forward."