Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
"You know, it's a process," sighed Griffins head coach Adam Loga, whose squad falls to 0-2-0 on the new season, a day after losing a heartbreaker in the final seconds, 2-1 to Mount Royal. "We're a young team. As mentioned in earlier interviews, it's a process and we're changing the culture. It's going to take time. It won't happen overnight.
"We've played five games so far this year. Four have been decent results for us. What our measurable expectation is — work rate and effort, desire and willingness to compete. And that just wasn't there today."
Calgary (1-1-0) launched 20 shots at overworked MacEwan goalkeeper Joshua Letendre, putting eight on net. MacEwan mustered little pressure all game, rounding up a flurry in the waning minutes to record eight shots, with four on goal.
Dinos star Dominic Russo, who was the runaway goal-scoring leader in Canada West last season with an astounding 15 tallies in 12 games, was a runaway bull in the box on Thursday, constantly bearing down on MacEwan's swamped defence.
In the seventh minute, he set up the Dinos' opening tally, chipping it along the goal-line to Kieran Lane-Oppenheim for a chip-in. Then in the 31st minute, Dinos captain Dominick Zator pierced through the heart of the Griffins defence untouched before feathering a pass to Russo, who booted it past Letendre.
The Dinos continued the onslaught in the second half, maintaining sustained bouts of pressure in the MacEwan zone.
In the 72nd minute, Russo put the icing on the cake of what could be a Canada West player of the week award when he shaked and baked his defender, deked Letendre to the ground and patiently picked a spot in the middle of the twine. After a three-point night, he was subbed out for rookie Bryce Connors.
Calgary made it 4-0 in the 77th minute when Mike McKinnon sprung second-half sub Lindon Fedorick and he buried it.
MacEwan tried to make some late noise with a pair of solid chances — a Jose Cruz laser and a quick one-time strike by late sub Brian Mayall — but both were turned aside by Calgary keeper Hunter Brett, who picked up the shutout.
Loga plans to make this a learning experience for his players. There's a strong lesson to be learned here.
"We learn from it simply that we've got to come to work every day," he stated. "Again, you don't bring a class work rate and class effort that's what happens in this league.
"It's too competitive to take days off. And unfortunately, at this moment, we're not good enough to take days off. The Canada West is so competitive, there are few teams that can take a day off.
"Our preparation, everything was there. It's just our execution and work rate let us down."
Next action for the MacEwan Griffins will be Sept. 9 in Saskatoon against the Saskatchewan Huskies. The U of C Dinos will be back in action on Aug. 31, hosting Saskatchewan.