Huskies too much for Bison men
Five-game winning streak skids to a halt for men’s hockey team
Sheri Lamb, STAFF
Krister Toews makes the save in action Friday night at Max Bell Centre.
Photo: David LipnowskiKrister Toews and the red-hot Bison men’s hockey team were brought down to earth last weekend after a visit from the number one ranked team in the nation.
Bisons’ second-year goaltender Toews had led the herd (7-8-1) to five straight wins before dropping two games on November 25 and 26 at Max Bell Arena to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) top-ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies (11-2-3).
Before the announced crowd of 618 was comfortable in their seats on Saturday night, it was 1-0 Huskies when sophomore Jeff Schmidt beat Toews with a wrist-shot 25 seconds in. The Huskies went on to the 5-2 victory in a penalty-filled game and have now won all four encounters between the teams this season.
Bison coach Mike Sirant was unhappy with the number of penalties called against his team in the two-game series. In total, the Bisons served 24 minor penalties.
“I don’t know what it is, but it just seems like the referees here are really trying to prove a point against us,” said Sirant. “We took a lot of penalties and some were deserved, but there was a lot going on from Saskatchewan that wasn’t being called.”
The Bisons have the best penalty-killing average in Canada West, at 90.2 per cent, and only gave up two power play goals to the Huskies all weekend.
It was 2-0 when Huskies sophomore Curtis Austring redirected the puck past Toews with 20 seconds left in a two-man advantage at 13:55.
The Bisons made it 2-1 with a power-play goal of their own when co-captain Paul Deniset beat Huskies’ goaltender Thomas Vicars with a one-timer at 2:56 of the second period.
But, the Huskies responded for three quick goals in a four-minute span to open up a 5-1 lead. Fourth-year Dean Beuker knocked the puck over Toews’ shoulder while shorthanded before second-year Garett Soparlo beat the Bisons’ goaltender with a quick shot from the slot. Schmidt made it 5-1 with his second of the game at 12:48.
Huskies coach Dave Adolph said he was disappointed in his team’s inability to capitalize on power play chances, but they still managed to take advantage of some lucky breaks.
“Tonight, in the second period we got a short-handed goal and two very opportunistic goals,” said Adolph. “We scored some key goals both nights that really made the difference in the weekend.”
Deniset scored his second of the game 55 seconds into the third, but missed on a penalty shot later in the period.
On Friday night, the Huskies ended the Bisons’ five-game winning streak when Jeff Harvey blanked the Bisons 4-0.
Next: The Bisons finish the first half of the season in Regina, where they play the division rival Regina Cougars (5-7-2) on December 2 and 3.
