EDMONTON – The Griffins were able to break their scoring drought against the Alberta Pandas on Friday night, so they have that as a positive takeaway, even if the end result was a 4-1 loss to their Edmonton rivals at the Downtown Community Arena.

Letta Mattheos one-timed a power-play slapper bar down past Misty Rey 6:10 into the third period for the Griffins' first goal against the Pandas in three meetings this season.

The visitors, however, already had a 3-0 lead at the time on goals by Maia Ehmann, Natalie Kieser and Sara Kazeil, and weren't fazed by Mattheos' tally, adding an empty netter by Raegan Yewdall to salt away the victory.

With the result, Alberta improves to 6-3-0, while MacEwan drops to 1-7-1 in the Canada West East Division standings. Alberta outshot MacEwan 39-13 in the game, mainly because they hemmed the Griffins in for long stretches and cycled, putting pressure on without a ton of high-danger chances.

Ehmann put the Pandas out front 6:27 into the contest when she tipped Payton Laumbach's pass from the corner past Lindsey Johnson.

Kieser made it 2-0 on the Pandas' 22^nd shot of the game when the Griffins got stuck in their own end for a prolonged period and Yewdall hit her with a pass that she tipped over Johnson's shoulder from five feet out.

MacEwan almost got out of the second period only down two, but Kazeil capitalized on a late-period 4-on-4, walking in untouched off the point and had all day to pick the perfect shot off the post and in. Mattheos almost scored for the Griffins late in the second, hitting the crossbar, so she seemed due in the third when MacEwan worked a powerplay passing sequence that left her with an opening from the right hash to wire over Rey and bar down.

Johnson made 36 saves for the Griffins, while Rey – her goalie partner with the U18AAA Edmonton Pandas before they embarked on university careers – stopped 12 for Alberta.

The rivals will meet again on Saturday (2 p.m., Clare Drake Arena, Canada West TV).