EDMONTON – In a back-breaking combination, the MacEwan Griffins spent a third of the game in the penalty box on Saturday, while their normally reliant penalty kill caved.The Manitoba Bisons won the special teams battle and skated to a comfortable 5-1 win in Canada West women's hockey action at the Downtown Community Arena.

The Bisons scored two powerplay goals on Saturday to go with the two they had in Friday's 3-2 victory as they completed a weekend sweep. 

The second period was a particularly rough one for the Griffins as they were under siege for most of it, allowing 17 shots and three goals against that turned a close game into a rout.

Kate Gregoire opened the scoring for the Bisons 9:26 into the game when the puck squirted out to her on a broken play and she redirected it inside the left post. Andrash tied it at 16:32 near the end of a powerplay with a snipe under the bar over Manitoba goaltender Meagan Relf's glove. The tally was Andrash's first of her Canada West career since joining MacEwan in 2021.

Unfortunately, that was about it under the positive leger for the Griffins as it was all Bisons after that.
Ashley Keller took back the momentum for Manitoba just over a minute later when her bloop tip from the high slot on the powerplay floated up and over Griffins goaltender Lindsey Johnson and in.

Chloe Snaith, Sarah Dennehy and Molly Kunnas scored second period goals for the visitors to put the contest out of reach.

From there, the Griffins' rally attempt was either thwarted by an ongoing parade to the penalty box or their inability to generate quality offensive chances. Manitoba rarely allowed them into the middle of the ice as the majority of MacEwan's 20 shots came from the perimeter.
Relf made 19 saves for the win, while Johnson stopped 32 for MacEwan.

While both teams entered the weekend with a chance to get into the playoff picture in Canada West, it was Manitoba who seized it, now sitting at 6-8-0 and occupying the sixth-and-final post-season position. MacEwan falls to 3-10-1 and is now five points out.

The Griffins head into a bye week before returning to action Dec. 2-3 in a home-and-home series vs. cross-town rival Alberta.