Adamus hopes to put life back into Huskies’ offence

By Darren Zary of The StarPhoenix

Now that Trent Adamus is healthy again, he hopes to cure an ailing scoring touch.

Adamus and the slumping University of Saskatchewan Huskies return to Canada West conference action this weekend with a crucial two-game series against the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns in Lethbridge.

“I’m feeling good; my injury is 100 per cent (healed) now,” says Adamus, a third-year Huskie forward from Saskatoon. “I definitely need to get some finish back. I definitely feel comfortable jumping in with (Curtis) Austring and (Mason) Wallin. They’re really easy to play with. Hopefully we can get things rolling (this coming) weekend.”

Adamus and his linemates were snake-bit last weekend against the University of Calgary Dinos, who swept the Dogs and their depleted defensive corps in their own barn. “It’s pretty frustrating,” Adamus said. “Wallin and Austring are pretty offensive (minded). We had lots of chances. It could have been a lot different if we would have just buried on a few chances.” Adamus missed the first six games of the regular season and a good chunk of pre-season after suffering an abdominal strain back in training camp. U of S head coach Dave Adolph has been careful working Adamus back into the lineup slowly.

“The way the penalties went last Friday night, there were a lot of guys chomping at the bit to get into the game. I made sure I didn’t over-extend Dommer at all on Friday night,” Adolph said. “I kept him out of most situations that might tire him out.

“He’s a real smoothie out there. He’s doing fine. Had he had a couple more games under his belt, he might have had four goals Saturday. That’s our problem right now — we’re either hit or miss with our offence.
“In time, we’ll be fine.”

Saskatchewan — without its top two defencemen Derek Endicott and Stephen Mann — has slipped to 4-4-0 with four rookies back on the blue-line. One of them, Mark Hinz, has just one game under his belt. He made his CIS debut last Saturday.

“If we don’t make those three mistakes, we probably win the game and then we’re not questioning them (rookies),” Adolph said of Saturday’s 4-1 loss. “You’re going to have those nights. We had the best defencemen in the league for 10 years. You’ve got to re-tool somewhere. “We owned them on Saturday; we just couldn’t score. (Calgary goalie Scott) Talbot was good. Jeff Harvey was good both nights — but you can’t defend when you’re shooting pucks in your own net (as rookies Chris O’Connor and Mark Hinz both did). “It will take care of itself.” As will Adamus. “You know what Trent can do,” Adolph said. “It’s just a matter of him getting into some games.”

dzary@sp.canwest.com