Jean Jr. plays OT hero as Griffins beat Golden Bears at home for first time since joining Canada West

EDMONTON — It wasn't always pretty, and it certainly wasn't perfect, but the MacEwan penalty kill came through when it mattered most — and for the first time ever the Griffins pulled out a victory on home ice over their cross-town rival, Alberta Golden Bears after a thrilling 4-3 OT win.

Dwayne Jean Jr. scored twice, including the overtime winner, while Carter Chorney and Myles Gauld also scored for MacEwan, who improved to 7-8-1-1 and are now just one point behind Alberta (7-7-1-2) for second place in the conference West division standings.

Despite falling behind two goals just over halfway through the game, the Griffins showed incredible will and compete and found a way to complete the comeback.

"The effort… that's been something that's been there almost all year long. It hasn't always been smart, but it's always been there. I was super impressed with our group's work tonight and we made smart simple plays," said Griffins head coach Zack Dailey.

"We got pucks behind being their D. We back checked hard, and made good reads of the rush. I was really impressed with the overall stick withitness.

"We had some unfortunate calls, but the guys didn't quit. We got one before the (second) period ended and then we pushed the whole third period to tie it up and win it in overtime."

Jean Jr. gave MacEwan a 1-0 lead at the 5:50 mark when he followed up his own shot and jammed home a rebound past Golden Bears goaltender Ethan Kruger.

The score remained that way until the final minute of the period when MacEwan was forced to kill off a five-on-three power play for a full two minutes.

The Golden Bears struck not just once, but twice with the man advantage as Tyson Laventure scored both goals just 20 seconds apart to give Alberta a 2-1 lead.

It was a tough break for the Griffins, who had a strong opening 20 minutes, but found themselves down by a goal.

Alberta struck again with the man-advantage to take a 3-1 lead when Adam Hall converted a nice cross-crease feed to beat Griffins goaltender Zac Onyskiw, and it looked like the Golden Bears may find a way to pull away, but MacEwan had other ideas.

With Kruger forced out of the game in the second period due to injury, Chorney was able to jump all over a big rebound to beat Ethan Barwick, who came in to replace Kruger with just under five minutes left in the middle frame to cut Alberta's lead to 3-2.

Then MacEwan continued to push and got the tying marker off the stick of Gauld at the 7:57 mark of the third to tie the game at 3-3.

"This isn't out of the ordinary from our group," said Dailey. 

"This is a team that competes hard all the time, we're just adding in more discipline with our play and more structure, and when we do that, we can be successful."

With the Griffins pushing for the go-ahead marker, they once again got into penalty trouble. With 3:47 left, MacEwan was faced with having to kill off another 5-on-3 man advantage, this time for 1:30.

But this time their PK didn't break, and once the game got to OT, Jean Jr. won a battle along the boards against Golden Bears forward Sam Popowich inside MacEwan's own blueline and raced in alone and beat Barwick with a beautiful move for the OT winner.

"We talk a whole bunch about emotional control and it's something that is hard to do. They're still kids, as much as we think they're grown up. You can only control so much. You can't control the score, you can't control the refs, all you can control is your next shift," said Dailey.

"What can I do to be at my best on the next shift? I think with that focus, you don't focus on the past, only on the future of what you can do, and they did a great job of controlling emotions and continuing to push through."

The victory was sweet for the Griffins, as it always feels good to beat an arch rival, and while it was a complete team win up-and-down their lineup, MacEwan was led by a few rookies.

There were Jean Jr.'s two goals, and OT heroics. Gauld's tying goal and Onyskiw's 24 saves in the win.

"That's part of the expectation when recruiting these kids is that we think they can make a difference right away," said Dailey.

"Now 17 games, we're over half way, and they've settled in nicely and they can really push, because they're getting comfortable, and you're starting to see them play at their best."

MacEwan will wrap up their first half schedule and face Alberta on Saturday at Clare Drake Arena at 7 p.m. MT.