EDMONTON, Alta. - The NAIT Ooks men's hockey team defeated the Concordia Thunder 7-3 on Saturday night in the NAIT Arena. Before the game, Dr. Glenn Feltham was presented with a new NAIT Ooks jersey, which the team will be wearing in the second semester. Dr. Feltham is retiring from NAIT in December, after being the President and CEO since 2011. He has been a massive supporter of NAIT Athletics during his tenure with the institute.  

Tonight's game was far from dull. It had plenty of offense and plenty of penalties. The Concordia Thunder were the first to strike as Matt Benko beat Brendan Jensen 50 seconds into the game. The first place NAIT Ooks responded quickly, as Devon McAndrews and Matt Dykstra scored minutes after to give the Ooks a 2-1 lead early in the game. The second period would see McAndrews score his second of the game when he tipped in a point shot on the powerplay. Branden Klatt scored shortly after to give NAIT a 4-1 lead. Keegan Tringer brought the Thunder deficit to two when he scored with a man advantage late in the second period making the game 4-2. 

The third period saw the most goals, along with the most penalties. NAIT added three more goals (Curtis Roach, Tyler Robertson, Jared Legien) while Concordia added one of their own (Ian McLellan), all of which were powerplay goals. The final score, 7-3 for the NAIT Ooks. Curtis Roach had a game-high four points (1G, 3A). Both teams combined for 40 penalty minutes. 

"It was a battle of special teams tonight, we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit with the number of penalties we took, but our powerplay bailed us out, scoring on 4 of 7 chances," said NAIT head coach Tim Fragle.

Players of the Game

NAIT Ooks - Curtis Roach

Concordia Thunder - Ian McLellan

The Big Picture

NAIT Ooks - 10-1 - First in the ACAC.

Concordia Thunder - 3-6-1-1 - Tied for sixth in the ACAC.

What's Next?

The two teams will now rematch at Clareview Arena at 6:00 pm tomorrow.