By Kristi Patton /
It’s been a long-time coming for the Grant MacEwan Griffins women’s hockey team but they are now the proud owners of their first Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championship banner.
The title, which has been held under close guard by the SAIT Trojans for the past two years, was made possible after a 3-1 series win over the University of Calgary Dinos.
The Griffins won the championship on home ice March 7 with Jill Barber chipping in two goals and Lauren Chiswell putting an extra in the bank to defeat the Dinos 3-1.
Cassandara Atkins replied for the Dinos.
Barber saved her best for last, scoring two of her three goals she tallied in the playoffs during the banner-winning game.
The Griffins did not make the road to the championship series easy on themselves.
Finishing near the bottom of the standings during the regular season with an 11-7-10-1 record, they were forced to meet the Red Deer College Queens in the quarter-finals.
The Griffins swept the Queens 2-0 in the best-of-three series. From there, the champions faced the top-ranked team, the Mount Royal Cougars, knocking them off 2-1 in the best-of-three series.
Meanwhile, the Dinos had to knock off the NAIT Ooks and the second-ranked defending champion Trojans, who fell in three games.
The Mount Royal Cougars finished with the bronze medal.
ACAC ice chips
SAIT Trojan women’s hockey goaltender Natalie Gerstmar broke the ACAC record for all-time career shutouts when the Trojans blanked the NAIT Ooks 4-0 on Feb. 9.
Gerstmar completed her fifth and final regular season in the ACAC with her first shutout of the season.
Formerly, the Calgary-native was tied with past Red Deer College Queens netminders Logan Frison and Nikki Ree who recorded seven regular-season shutouts in their respective careers.
Along with her current ACAC stint with the SAIT Trojans, Gerstmar has also played with the Mount Royal Cougars and U of C Dinos. Gerstmar is now the career leader in three regular-season categories: most wins (37), most minutes (3,817), and most shutouts (8).
In 12 games this season, Gerstmar posted a goals-against average of 2.04 and a save percentage of .915.
The Griffins’ Melody Howard was named the Conference Coaches selection as Women’s Hockey Player of the Year.
Howard placed second overall, behind teammate Leanna Kordyban, in playoff scoring. The Conference Coaches selected MacEwan’s Kristen Sugiyama as the Women’s Hockey Top Scholastic Player of the Year. |