Difference from being really good is grate

By Darren Zary of The StarPhoenix
dzary@sp.canwest.com

Thunderbirds 4, Huskies 1

With their power play hitting rock bottom, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies fell 4-1 to the British Columbia Thunderbirds in Canada West conference men’s hockey action Saturday at Rutherford Rink.

“Our execution is way off,” said U of S coach Dave Adolph. “We had all the opportunities in the world to allow our power play to be the difference, but it wasn’t. It hasn’t been for a while. We did a lot of unforced errors on the power play and when is it going stop?

“We work on (the power play) three times a week at practice, but you don’t see what we’ve worked on on the ice. If I was UBC, I would have taken more penalties. All it does is kill the rest of the game off.”

Saskatchewan went 0-for-14 on the power play Saturday and 1-for-27 in splitting the series.

“We’ve got skill on this team,” said Huskies assistant captain Curtis Austring. “We have to find ways to score. There are no ‘good tries’ or ‘good jobs’ or nothing like that. We’re tip-toeing around the crease and the net.”

While the Dogs tip-toe around the tulips, the opposition is smelling the roses.

“We’ve beaten them twice this year and they’re a good hockey team,” said UBC coach Milan Dragicevic, whose team improved to 5-5-0-0. “We beat U of A (Alberta) for the first time in 20 years at home, so we know we’ve got a good team.

“Our penalty-killing was great. That was the difference.”

Brent Twordik’s short-handed marker put the Huskies up 1-0 midway into the first period, but that was the only goal they got despite outshooting the ’Birds 46-31 in the game — and 25-8 in the second frame.

Darrell May and Mike Gough both scored for UBC off faceoffs. May scored again in the third, along with Jordan Beirnes on an empty-netter. Francois Thuot made 45 saves for the T-birds. Russ Monette stopped 27 for the Dogs (6-5-0-1), who are home against No. 1-ranked Alberta this weekend.

“We’re a team that needs to be a little more gritty,” said Adolph. “Right now, we’re looking for the pretty play and it’s not there.”