Lack of scoring punch sinks Dogs at Telus Cup

By Darren Zary of The StarPhoenix

Lakehead 4, Huskies 2

EDMONTON — Huskie heartache — again.

All that the University of Saskatchewan Huskies wanted was another shot at the University of Alberta Golden Bears in the Telus University Cup national championship hockey final. Instead, they got slewfooted and eliminated by the upstart Lakehead University Thunderwolves here Saturday afternoon, suffering another gut-wrenching defeat.

Almost a year after losing the Telus University Cup in overtime to the Bears, the Huskies were stunned 4-2 by the opportunistic T-wolves. Lakehead scored a power-play goal, a cheesy goal off a stick and a knee that went over Saskatchewan goalie Jeff Harvey’s shoulder and an empty-netter to seal the deal. Lakehead went 2-0 in the pool and advanced to the final against Alberta.

Alberta beat Lakehead 3-2 on Sunday to win the championship.

“We dominated most of the play,” said U of S captain Brent Twordik. “Except for their power play, I don’t think they had too many good-opportunity shots and they got a lucky break on their third goal.

“Their goalie played fantastic. We just couldn’t get one by him. That’s what happens in this tournament. You’ve got to bury your opportunities.”

The Huskies, who played well enough to win, weren’t as much disappointed as they were mad.

“The thing that ticks me off is that we’re five goals better than them, easy,” said Saskatchewan coach Dave Adolph, who came away empty-handed from nationals for the sixth time in 10 years.

“In that first period (when the Dogs fired 20 shots), it should have been 4-0, let alone 1-0 for them. Fiveon-five, we owned them, but didn’t score.”

Lakehead goalie Chris Whitley, named his team’s player of the game, stood on his head and made 39 saves. He had some luck, too.

In the first period, Twordik faced a half-open net, but snapped the puck right into Whitley’s outstretched hand. Matt Girling lifted a can’t-miss shot over the crossbar in the second frame. Garett Soparlo got stopped on a breakaway.

In the final minute, the Dogs had a great chance to send it into overtime. Dean Beuker, the scoring leader in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, was open with 45 seconds to go and had Whitley down and out. Staring at a wide-open top half of the net, Beuker fired high.

“That puck hit a bad piece of air,” said Adolph. “I’ve never seen Dean Beuker miss an ocean like that. It hit a seagull or something.”

Whitley stopped all 20 shots he faced in the opening frame. Lakehead took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal at 13:22 by Mike Jacobsen.

Jeff Richards scored a hat trick, including the winner. His first goal, on a back-hander, made it 2-0. He scored Lakehead’s third goal on a 2-on-1 break with 4:24 to go to make it 3-1. He added an empty-netter with 23 seconds left in regulation. The Dogs had pulled to within one on a goal by Trent Adamus, who came on for Harvey as an extra attacker.

Bryce Thoma, U of S player of the game, put the Dogs on the board at 17:43 of the second period with a power-play goal.

“We put forth a great effort,” said Beuker. “We’ve had trouble scoring and it was evident again tonight. We worked hard, but sometimes that doesn’t cut it. There are 24 disappointed guys, but we have nothing to hang our heads about.”

Said Lakehead coach Pete Belliveau: “I said it would be a barn-burner and it was. That’s a great hockey team.”

dzary@sp.canwest.com