Huskies book another U Cup date
Men’s team overcomes injuries to take semifinal, women also move on to final
With U Sports’ top goalie Jordon Cooke on crutches and an entire top line also shelved by injury, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies somehow found a way.
Carson Stadnyk somehow found a way to juggle a puck off his hands and stick to split the University of Calgary Dinos’ defence and net the game-winner.
The time on the clock? Just 24 seconds left in regulation.
The Hockey Dogs somehow saved their best for last in a 3-1 victory Saturday over the Dinos to take their Canada West best-ofthree semifinal 2-1 and advance to the Canada West final.
Even more importantly, as a Canada West conference finalist, Saskatchewan is now guaranteed a spot in the University Cup national championship next month.
“A good NFL coach always runs it down, runs the clock down to the last 10 seconds, works it inside the five-yard line and make sure the opposition doesn’t have any timeouts left on the clock to run a play and that’s what we did,” offered Saskatchewan coach Dave Adolph after a rather unbelievable finish Saturday night at Rutherford Rink.
“That was our plan. We’re going back to nationals. Twenty-three years in a row, we’ve been in the playoffs and we have an opportunity now for some of our guys to get healthy over the next two-andand-half weeks.”
The Dogs got it done Saturday without Cooke and without their top two scorers, Josh Roach and Logan McVeigh, as well as Michael Sofillas and Wyatt Johnson.
They went to the bullpen and got two wins from backup goalie Taran Kozun, who had played in only five games during the regular season.
“It was a huge opportunity and huge win, but I couldn’t do it without battling with Cookie all year — he’s one hell of a goalie, one hell of a leader,” said Kozun, a Nipawin product who played for the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers and Seattle Thunderbirds.
“I’m just trying my best to be like him and you’ve got to thank the boys for stepping up like they did. They made my life a lot easier just playing hard.”
It didn’t look so easy, waiting until the final seconds of regulation to secure the series victory.
Stadnyk’s goal, too, looked anything but easy.
“Oh my god,” said a stunned Stadnyk, still in disbelief. “I just blacked out. I don’t even know what was going on. Jesse (Forsberg) just flicked it to the middle and it went off my hand twice and just flukily went past their D. I had no time to shoot it, so I just flicked it.”
Alex Forsberg also scored for the Huskies, his goal coming at the 2:52 mark of the opening period. Logan Cable added an empty-netter for Saskatchewan, which outshot Calgary 32-24.
The Dinos, who were 0-for-5 on the power play, knotted the score at 1-1 at 6:38 of the third on a goal by Logan Fisher.
Overtime loomed until the dramatic finish and Stadnyk’s big goal.
“It was a rolling, bouncing puck to Connor MacDavid and watch him dribble it in,” noted Adolph, whose team now meets the archrival Alberta Golden Bears in the Canada West final with both teams already guaranteed spots in the upcoming U-Cup national tournament in Fredericton, N.B. WOMEN’SHOCKEY
Saskatchewan also booked itself a spot in the Canada West women’s hockey final and U Sports national championship.
The U of S women edged the visiting University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 2-1 Saturday at Rutherford Rink to sweep their best-of-three Canada West women’s hockey semifinal series 2-0.
Kaitlin Willoughby, with a power play marker at 11:20 of the second, and Chloe Smith, at 14:46, scored for the Huskies, who got a 27-save performance from Jessica Vance.
With the win, Saskatchewan advances to the Canada West final next weekend for only the third time in team history. The win also earns the Huskies a trip to London, Ont., for the 2018 national championship to be hosted by the Western Mustangs.