Three Ooks teams saw postseason action this past weekend, and two of them faced close rivals in ACAC play.
Here's the recap:
BADMINTON
A strong contingent of Badminton student-athletes represented NAIT at the 2024 CCAA Badminton Championships, held at Seneca Polytechnic in Ontario.
Your Ooks battled hard in the tournament and came away with some hardware. Congrats to Smit Patel, who claimed Bronze in the Men's Singles category by defeating Eason Wong in a rematch of the ACAC Men's Singles final.
Also, congratulations to Davis Wong and Manasi Pandit for claiming the Mixed Doubles Bronze medal with convincing straight-sets victories.
Shout-outs as well to Greg Friske and Anirudh Sharma, who finished 4th in Men's Doubles, and Noel Do, who emerged victorious in the 5th-place game for Women's Singles. Congratulations on strong seasons and even stronger finishes!
WOMEN'S HOCKEY
The Ooks women's hockey team played a best-of-3 semi-final series against the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens, a highly anticipated rematch of last year's ACAC Finals.
Holding the third seed for this year's playoffs meant the Ooks had to begin the series in Red Deer's barn on Friday night, but this didn't affect the mindset of the Ooks, who stuck to their game through a solid opening 20 minutes that saw both teams be held off the scoreboard.
The game would continue to be scoreless deep into the 2nd period, with 35 minutes of game action passing by before Red Deer converted a power-play goal to break the deadlock. The Queens would get another goal at 18:52 of the 3rd, but the Ooks would quickly respond thanks to Jessica Engelbrecht, seeing this game to the dressing room only down 2-1. Engelbrecht would add her second tally in the 3rd, a power-play goal for the Ooks; however, it only took 31 seconds for Red Deer to come through with a decisive goal from Chloe Belter. The Ooks could not claw back with a third goal of their own and dropped Game 1 by a 3-2 final score.
Returning home for Game 2, the Ooks needed the win to stay alive and force a winner-take-all Game 3 for the next night. This game would prove to be even tighter than the first game, with nothing coming from the outside parts of either zone. Starting goalies Izzy Palumbo and Kaitlyn Slator dominated in this one, and it would be Red Deer managing the opening tally by tapping home a loose puck in the crease. The Ooks would get it back before the first period was over, though, as just after a power-play expired, a pass from Kamryn Aebly was one-timed home by Hanna Paquette in front, giving Paquette her fourth goal and eighth point (regular-season and playoffs combined) against Red Deer this season. The two teams would head to intermission tied 1-1.
There would be virtually no scoring for almost the entire remainder of the game, with both teams pushing hard but both goalies having the answer every time. The winning goal came in the second period, needing a 5-on-3 advantage for the Ooks and a rebound that Halle Graham tapped home from a few feet away from the crease to give the Ooks a 2-1 lead that they wouldn't relinquish, pushing the series to a third and deciding game back in Red Deer.
Game 3 started the same way as Game 1, with no scoring to be found through 20 minutes of play, and only 14 shots combined between the two squads. Determined not to let the script from Game 1 repeat itself, the Ooks would end up taking advantage of their fourth power-play of the evening as Kamryn Aebly came up large again, this time scoring a goal of her own to break the ice for NAIT 4:13 into the second period. Another tally from veteran Bre Martin later in the period extended the Ook's lead to 2-0, and from there, they never looked back.
Kaitlyn Slator, after stonewalling the Queens through the last two periods of Game 2, refused to allow anything to get past her in Game 3, collecting her career playoff shutout as the Ooks clinched the series on Red Deer's ice with a 2-0 victory, advancing to the ACAC Finals where they will take on Lakeland College.
Congrats on the series win, Ooks women's hockey; on to the Finals!
MEN'S HOCKEY
The Battle of Edmonton was renewed once again as the Ooks and Thunder faced off in their first postseason series since the 2022 ACAC Finals, which the Ooks won.
With the Ooks holding home-ice advantage, Game 1 took place in the NAIT Arena on Friday night. The first period was slow. With the Ooks unable to make anything happen on the ensuing power play, the game entered the first intermission tied 0-0.
However, things would change in the second, as the Ooks took ownership early and often from the second period onward. Colin Schmidt opened the scoring 3:32 into period #2, and Ethan Leyer followed up at 11:37 to give the Ooks a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes of action. Concordia would get one back with just over six minutes left in the third period, but that was as close as they could get; Kenyon Nyman provided an insurance marker for the Ooks with 2:12 left in regulation, and Garin Butler iced the game with an empty-net goal to produce the final score of 4-1 and a series lead for NAIT.
With a chance to wrap up the series in Clareview, the Ooks entered Game 2 hungry for that second win and had the ideal start towards that goal. Brandon Lawson got the Ooks on the board just 2:37 into the contest, and later on, in the first period, Jackson Hassman put home a second tally for NAIT. Zachery Carlson would respond for the Thunder, sending the game to the first intermission with the Ooks leading 2-1.
Things unraveled in the second period for the Ooks, though, starting with a power-play goal against 3:51 in and two more tallies in the final 10:30 of that second frame for Concordia. Despite a valiant 50-shot effort, the Ooks could not come back in this game, dropping it by a 4-2 score and setting up a winner-take-all Game 3 at the NAIT Arena.
Game 3 would be closer than any of the first two, even if it started rough for NAIT. A Concordia goal 12:08 in was the only goal the 1st period saw, giving the Ooks a bit of adversity to overcome starting off Game 3. They would draw back even thanks to a solo effort by Eric Lacombe that tied things up 2:16 into the 2nd period, a score that would hold through the halfway point of the period. Unfortunately, the second half of the 2nd spelled trouble again, with Concordia getting two tallies in that span to claim a 3-1 lead they wouldn't relinquish. A hard-fought series came to a close, with the Thunder winning the series two games to one.
While it wasn't the end result we wanted, we congratulate the boys on a solid season and top-3 regular-season finish in the ACAC standings!