Cougars record second shutout of season

There are a number of adjectives that could be used to describe the Oct. 15 clash between the Mount Royal Cougars men’s hockey team and MacEwan Griffins: spirited, feisty, rough or even just plain nasty at times.

In a game that featured seven player ejections, the Cougars won their fourth straight contest thanks to a 3-0 shutout over the visiting Griffins. With the win, the Cougars ran their record to 4-0 and share first place with SAIT, also at 4-0. In those four contests, the Cougars have outscored the opposition 24-2, including two shutouts.

The Cougars dominated the first period, outshooting MacEwan 14-6, but were only able to score once, that coming at 16:17 when Mike Brown beat Griffins’ goaltender Travis Rolheiser. Tyler Jewitt was credited with the lone assist. Both teams went 0-2 on the power play in the first stanza.

Mount Royal made it a 2-0 game 2:31 into the second period on a goal from Vinny Muchalla (Ryan Moore). Sixty-two seconds later, Mount Royal captain Darnell Glass (Jewitt and Jeff Barrett) found the back of the net to increase the lead to three.

Then the fireworks began.

At the 9:39 mark, the Cougars Tyler Eskesen was assessed a game misconduct for checking from behind. A mere 20 seconds later, with the puck in the Griffins zone, a scrum broke out between the Cougars Mike Brown, Jeff Barrett, Jessie Tresierra and a number of MacEwan players. A fight broke out between Barrett and MacEwan’s Kelin Hrycuik and both players would receive game misconducts.

The Cougars would lose another player less than three-minutes later when Brad Goss was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct. The Cougars would run into further penalty trouble later in the period, including a MacEwan 5-3 for a full two minutes.

Although he wasn’t extensively tested, Cougars’ goaltender Justin Cote made a number of difficult saves during the MacEwan advantage, often through screens.

MacEwan outshot the Cougars 10-8 in the second period, but still trailed 22-16 overall.

The physical play continued in the final frame. Twelve minutes in, Mount Royal’s Vinny Muchalla and MacEwan’s Zachary Schram received game misconducts for fighting, and in the ensuing moments before play resumed, two additional players – Mount Royal’s Jason MacDonald and the Griffins’ Daniel Starosta were also ejected for unsportsmanlike behaviour from their respective benches.

Mount Royal dominated the final period territorially, and it showed on the shot clock as well. The Cougars out shot MacEwan 14-3 in the final frame and 36-19 overall.

With two assists, Tyler Jewitt was named the Cougars player of the game.

Mount Royal’s next home action is Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m. when they host the NAIT Ooks at Flames Community Arenas.