The Briercrest College Clippers men’s hockey team has pulled off an upset for the ages.
After winning only three games in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference regular season and sneaking into the post-season as the sixth and final seed, the Clippers capped off a two-games-to-none sweep of the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings on Saturday night with a 5-3 win in Red Deer.
Briercrest had put themselves in the driver seat 24 hours earlier with a 5-1 victory in Game 1.
As was the case in their previous meeting, things were exceptionally close early on as neither team took control.
Ryan Miley and Caleb Grandfield scored for the Clippers in the first period and the teams left the opening frame tied 2-2, but Jacob Arsenault would give Briercrest the lead with the lone goal of the second.
Red Deer tied things up 17 seconds into the third, but that just made for some late-game dramatics: Zachary Anderson scored shorthanded at the 9:50 mark to put the Clippers up 4-3, and Briercrest would hold on the rest of the way.
Brandon Kelly closed out scoring with an empty-net marker with seven seconds remaining.
Dominik Tmej turned in another solid performance in the Clippers goal to earn the win, turning aside 39 shots, while Briercrest had 35 shots on Red Deer’s Arik Weersink.
Things definitely won’t get easier from here for the Clippers in the ACAC semifinals -- they’re back in action next weekend when they travel to Edmonton to face the 15-1-0-0 NAIT Ooks, with that series beginning Friday.
