Huskies have limited success in past years

— ZARY

EDMONTON — The University of Saskatchewan Hockey Huskies will be skating at their 11th University Cup national championship tournament this week.

It’s their second straight appearance, third in five years and sixth in the last 10.
That’s a 60 per cent appearance clip — quite impressive among all Canadian Interuniversity Sport men’s hockey teams — but, so far, they’ve suffered through a zero per cent conversion rate during the past decade.

That’s one power-play stat they’d like to improve on here this time around.
Saskatchewan made its first tournament appearance in 1966-67, advancing to five University Cup finals since then, including last season when they lost 4-3 in overtime to Alberta.

The Huskies made four trips to the University Cup final during the 1980s, including three consecutive from 1981 to 1983. After losing consecutive championships to the Moncton Blue Eagles in 1981 and 1982 at Calgary and Moncton respectively, the Huskies were lucky on their third try. They won their only CIS championship in 1983 with a 6-2 win over the Concordia University Stingers. The 1983 championship team, which included current Huskies head coach Dave Adolph as a co-captain, was inducted into the University of Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in April, 2002.

In 25 University Cup games, the Huskies have a record of 13-12-0 (.520 winning percentage). They’ve outscored their opponents 101-83. Last year, the Dogs blanked Moncton and Western Ontario by identical 3-0 scores before losing in overtime to Alberta before 11,000 fans at Rexall Place.

Saskatchewan opens the tournament Thursday afternoon against the Acadia Axemen, who killed the Dogs’ championship dream back in 1998 with a last-minute 6-5 victory at Saskatchewan Place.

Acadia won its only CIS title in 1996.

In their second game, the Huskies will play the Lakehead Thunderwolves, whom they swept a twogame exhibition set earlier this season at Thunder Bay, Ont.