Huskies sweep T-Birds to advance to second straight CW Final

Recap by UBC Sports Information

VANCOUVER – For the second straight year the Saskatchewan Huskies have advanced to the Canada West Final with a semifinal series victory over the UBC Thunderbirds, securing the two-game sweep with a 4-1 win Saturday night at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.

A tremendous opening period for UBC had the blue and gold up a goal after the first period, but the Huskies rattled off four unanswered, two of them on the power play, while Ethan Regnier hit the empty net in the final minute to secure the Huskies' second straight trip to the University Cup. 

"We were determined, we were focussed, I'm real proud of our group," said Saskatchewan head coach, Brandin Cote. "To get out of that (first) period 1-0 was big. We just talked about re-setting, they won the first, let's go win the second. I thought our third was the best period of hockey we've played all year. It was textbook in terms of what we want to do, what we want to accomplish. We didn't sit back, they pushed a little bit but we were so technically sound in terms of everything we did."

Down 2-1 after two, the T-Birds were held to just six shots on goal in the final 20 minutes. Without a power play chance of their own, the 'Birds were forced to the kill twice in the first ten minutes of the frame.

Landon Kosior gave the Huskies a 3-1 lead on the man advantage at 11:01, a hard wrister from the top of the circle going straight into the back of the net for his first of the post-season.

The 'Birds pressed for another late rally but the Huskies were clinical in their own zone, refusing to let UBC generate anything.

Brett Mirwald was called to the bench for the extra attacker with just under three minutes remaining, but even with a sixth skater, the 'Birds weren't able to come close to finding the pair of goals they so desperately needed.

"I'm definitely in shock right now," said UBC head coach, Sven Butenschon. "But I had the sense you could have played ten periods tonight and we wouldn't be able to get inside. We couldn't generate any good scoring chances, we couldn't even really get a shot on net when we really needed one. 

What added to the shock for the T-Birds was they started the game exactly as they would have hoped. Hemming the Huskies in their own zone almost immediately off the opening faceoff, Nathan Sullivan scored his first Canada West playoff goal just 1:56 into the first period. Jake Lee circled with the puck behind the net and fed out front to Sullivan who whipped it blocker side past Nolan Maier.

Outshooting Saskatchewan 12-4 in the opening 20 minutes, the intermission break seemed to sap the T-Birds' jam as the Huskies slowly took over the game.

Raphael Pelletier found the equalizer on the power play at the 2:42 mark of the second. Kayden Sadhra-Kang lost a blade and was forced to struggle to the bench, allowing the Huskies a de facto 5-on-3. The visitors took full advantage, Chase Bertholet feeding the puck from high in the zone to Pelletier who had plenty of time to outwait Mirwald.

Dawson Holt scored what stood up as the game winner at 9:22, converting on a 2-on-1 with Cole Jordan who joined the rush stepping out of the penalty box after the Huskies killed off UBC's lone power play of the final 40 minutes.

"Our power play, if you don't score at least you want to get some momentum off it, I think it almost had the opposite effect," Butenschon lamented. "I think it affected our confidence, especially our power play guys. It was going to be hard having three weeks between games and to a man, I don't think anybody in that room was playing close to the way they played before the break." 

A big difference in the series was indeed the way the Huskies seemed to be firing on all cylinders. They now benefit from a quick series and await the winner of Sunday's game three between the Dinos and Mount Royal Cougars after the cross-town rivals pushed their semifinal series the distance with a Dinos win Saturday night.

"We were resilient and found a way," said Cote of his team's effort in Vancouver this weekend. "So far this year, especially here at UBC against a highly potent offensive team, when it came down to crunch time, our guys played."