Dogs wait for their day
By Darren Zaryof The StarPhoenix
The only game the University of Saskatchewan Hockey Huskies will play this week is the waiting game.
After rolling back into town on the bus early Monday morning, the freshly-crowned Canada West men’s hockey champions now await the 2007 University Cup national championship tournament draw to be released at the end of the week or early next week.
The tournament runs March 22-25 at Moncton, N.B., where the Huskies will be joined by the Moncton Blue Eagles, New BrunswickVarsity Reds, Ontario University Athletics champion Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks and either the St. Francis Xavier X-Men or St. Thomas Tommies. St. FX leads best-of-three Atlantic University Sport (AUS) wild-card final 1-0.
The Dogs, who took Monday off to rest, will be back on the ice at practice today. They’ll leave for Moncton either next Monday or Tuesday once travel plans are finalized.
The Dogs earned a berth in the University Cup national tournament by knocking off the two-time defending champion Alberta Golden Bears 2-1 in a hard-fought best-of-three Canada West conference final at Clare DrakeArena in Edmonton.
Despite dropping the opening game 2-1, the Huskies battled back to take Game 2 3-2 in triple-overtime and Game 3 by a 4-3 score after rallying from a 3-1 deficit with three unanswered goals in that deciding game.
The Huskies now advance to their 12th University Cup tournament in search of their second national championship. Their first was in 1983, also at Moncton.
“All the credit to our senior guys,” U of S head coach Dave Adolph said. “This is a game of experience and the more times you get the guys the opportunity to be successful, the better.
“Our experienced showed.”
Austring player of the week
U of S assistant captain Curtis Austring, who was the OT hero Saturday, has been named both the Canada West athlete of the week and men’s hockey player of the week.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound commerce student, from Stewart Valley, collected five points to pace the Huskies to the 2007 Canada West hockey title. Austring was a one-man wrecking crew in Game 2 on Saturday, scoring all three Saskatchewan goals as the Huskies rallied to tie the series at 1-1 with a 3-2 victory in triple OT.
He sent the game into extra time with the tying goal at 16:05 of the third period. It was almost 40 minutes before he completed his first hat-trick of the season with the game-winning goal at 9:16 of the third OT period, ending the longest game in Canada West hockey playoff history at 99:16.
Austring helped Saskatchewan claim its 14th Canada West conference title and first since 2000 with a two-assist performance in Game 3.
With the five-point series, Austring claimed the conference playoff scoring title with 3-4— 7 in five games. Overall, he has 13-20—33 in 36 games.
dzary@sp.canwest.com
