Dogs play Lakehead in high-stakes game
By Darren Zary of The StarPhoenix
EDMONTON — Game on.
You don’t need to be a math major to figure out the playoff scenario for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies at the Telus University Cup national hockey championship.
After the Lakehead University ThunderwolvesedgedtheAcadiaAxemen in a come-from-behind 4-3 victory Friday, Lakehead and Saskatchewan are both 1-0 in their pool. Lakehead and Saskatchewan face off today at 12 noon (Sask. time) to determine the Pool B finalist in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship Sunday night (8 p.m. Sask. time) at Rexall Place.
“It is must-win and that’s the way it should be,” said U of S head coach Dave Adolph.
“Perfect. It eliminates all the speculation as to what’s going to happen in a (potential) tie-breaker.”
Lakehead battled back from a 2-0 deficit and took the lead for the first time with 6:55 remaining on a goal by Jeff Richards.
Lakehead (13-9-2 in the Ontario conference, 24-16-2 overall) and Saskatchewan (17-7-4 in the Canada West, 26-10-4 overall) are no strangers to each other. The Dogs beat the Wolves twice in non-conference play — 4-2 and 7-5 — in October at Thunder Bay. The Huskies also picked up a win and a tie in exhibition play against the Thunderwolves last season.
“We got one tie out of it,” Lakehead head coach Pete Belliveau said, “so the law of averages are on our side. They’re very, very physical. We don’t mind that. We can battle. We’ve played some pretty physical teams this year. We saw them play (Thursday) and we’re very, very impressed with them. We’ll be there at the bell and the fans are in for a barnburner. It’s going to be good, old-time hockey.”
The Dogs are up for the challenge.
“We’re going to take them very seriously, just like we took Acadia very seriously,” U of S captain Brent Twordik said.
“They’ve got a few guys who try to get underneath your skin. They’ve got one skilled line and a bunch of guys who work hard. Their power play is pretty good with that one line. Shut down their power play and I think we’ll be all right.”
The captain of the Thunderwolves is fifth-year centre Joel Scherban, last year’s CIS most valuable player and a two-time recipient of the CIS most sportsmanlike player award.
Scherban, who also wore the ‘C’ in the OHL with the London Knights, is Lakehead’s all-time leading scorer and topped the Thunderwolves this season with 27 points (13-14—27) in 24 conference games. Four Alberta natives suit up for the T-Wolves, including former Prince Albert Raiders netminder Grant McCune.
dzary@sp.canwest.com
