HUSKIES CHALK UP BIG WIN TO EVEN UP THE WEEKEND
SASKATOON SK – In game two of the campaign between the men’s hockey provincial rivals, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies were out for victory after the previous night’s loss to the University of Regina Cougars. With the Huskies feeling the pressure from the evening before, the Dogs pulled it together and evened up the weekend with a win a piece, taking the Cats 6-3.
Early into the first period the Huskies took a penalty which opened up the defense and allowed Blair Stengler to blind-side Huskie goaltender Jeff Harvey, with the assist going to forward Shayne Emmons. Brett Novak tied up the game by top-shelfing one past Cougars goalkeep Clint Chalmer’s glove, with Keegan McAvoy and Curtis Austring marking down a couple of assists. As the men defended their territory, things heated up between the two teams.
Eager for the win, Curtis Austring slid one into the Cougar net as the teams scrambled for the puck, putting the Dogs up 2-1, with Alekcei McAvoy assisting in the duty. A shot from the point had Brent Twordik single-handedly putting the Huskies ahead by two. Shortly following the Huskies third goal sparked Matt Girling to take a pass from Twordik and Colin Patterson and score the Huskies fourth goal of the evening.
Stephen Mann started off the third period by putting the Dogs up by four goals with the assist going to Mason Wallin. The Huskies took advantage of yet another power play with Greg Park scoring his first of the game while assists went to Mann and Twordik, making the score 6-1. Not to be counted out yet, Jason Weitzel scored two back-to-back goals, the first of which was unassisted while Shayne Emmons helped him out on the second, finalizing the score at 6-3.
“It was a good bounce-back game from yesterday. Our effort was there both nights; just tonight we got the bounces. We got the lucky ones. That seems to be all we needed to turn things around here,” comment Huskies forward Jeff Schmidt.
Head coach Dave Adolph compared tonight’s game to last night in Regina: “Last night we just couldn’t get ahead; they play a quality game. Tonight you go down one nothing and yeah, I’m real nervous because that’s their game and for us to get back ahead on the scoreboard was key tonight. Once we got ahead we could play a bit more of our game rather than having to battle through their great defense. We got a couple lucky goals but when you work hard you get a break every once in a while, and we got one.”
Ashlyn Newlove
University of Saskatchewan Huskies Sports Information Assistant
