Men make it a MacEwan hockey double

Bram Stephen had a weekend he’ll never forget.

The MacEwan Griffins men’s hockey head coach helped guide the program to its first Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference title since 2004 with a dramatic comefrom-behind 4-3 overtime victory over the NAIT Ooks Sunday.

And on Friday morning, before MacEwan won Game 1 of their best-of-three series in overtime, he became a father for the first time.

“It was a wild weekend. Having our baby boy on Friday, when overtime came on Sunday, I think all of the nervousness was out of my system,” Stephen said.

For the first time in school history, both the men’s and women’s MacEwan hockey programs were crowned ACAC champions in the same season.

Just eight days earlier, the women Griffins, led by head coach Lindsay McAlpine, rallied to beat SAIT 3-2 in overtime in Game 4 to capture their first title since 2008.

Stephen and McAlpine have coached the Griffins for five and seven years respectively.

To win their first ACAC title in 13 years, the men beat perennial powerhouse NAIT, winner of three of the previous four ACAC titles.

“It’s been an evolution for us. My first year here, we didn’t get a win in our first 14 games. We wanted to grow from within and be patient,” Stephen said. “The last few years, (NAIT) was our biggest test. We had some great battles with them but came up short. Our team this year was so motivated to win a championship.”

What’s nice is the programs may not have to wait as long for their next one. Both have a strong leadership group, and much of their on-ice production is coming from players in their first three years of eligibility.

Case in point, the players that scored the overtime-winning goals were Brett Njaa and Morgan Casson — both second-year players.

“The best part of this championship is that it’s the start of something special for MacEwan hockey. It’s a pivotal point in our hockey programs,” McAlpine said. “We aren’t losing a lot of players from our program this year and we have a great young nucleus that is going to continue to move this program forward.”

The men’s side will only lose two players.

“We had nine rookies this year that came in and were impact players for us. It’s an exciting time for us,” Stephen said.