The finals in the ACAC for hockey are underway, and here’s how each team fared in the first two games of the best-of-five.
Men’s Hockey
The men’s hockey team is on the brink of elimination after dropping the first two games against Red Deer Polytechnic 5-1 and 2-1. On Friday, Red Deer opened the scoring with only 25 seconds left in the first. Red Deer would add another to go up 2-0 just 1:44 into the second. That would be all the scoring in the first two periods, but there would be plenty of scoring in the third. Dylan Stewart would get NAIT back within one at the 3:08 mark of the third, but that would be the closest NAIT would get. Red Deer would respond 13 seconds later and then add two more goals at 8:33 and 11:07 to take game one.
On Saturday, all the scoring would come in the second period, with Eric Lacombe opening the scoring at the 5:43 mark of the second for NAIT. Red Deer would tie the game less than three minutes later and take the lead at 12:53 in the second. NAIT will now have to win three in a row this weekend to win the championship starting on Friday in Red Deer at 7 p.m. If they win on Friday, they return home to NAIT for game four on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Women’s Hockey
The women’s hockey team is also on the brink of elimination after dropping the first two games against Red Deer Polytechnic 2-0 and 4-2. On Friday, Red Deer would open the scoring at the 15:44 mark of the first period. Red Deer would add another at the 7:10 mark of the second, which would be enough to take game one.
On Saturday, Red Deer would open the scoring just under seven minutes into the first, which would be all the scoring in the first. In the second, Darby Robertson would tie the game for NAIT on the powerplay just over eight minutes into the period. Red Deer would retake the lead with a powerplay marker of their own just over six minutes later. Red Deer would then score two goals in 45 seconds at 2:02 and 2:47 marks of the third to add to the lead. Jessica Engelbrecht would get NAIT back within two just under four minutes later, but that would be all NAIT could get. NAIT will have to win three in a row now to bring home the championship. The women will start that attempt on Friday at NAIT at 7 p.m. If they win that game and the game Saturday in Red Deer, the winner-take-all game five will also be here at NAIT on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
