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| Morgan Willoughby celebrates her winning goal for the Huskies. |
On Saturday night at
the ancient Rutherford Rink, it appeared seniors’ night was going to have a sombre tone for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team. The
Huskies held a 2-0 lead over the defending U Sports national champion
University of Alberta Pandas heading into the third period before the visitors
mounted a comeback.
Pandas star centre Alexandra
Poznikoff scored her 12th of the season while being hauled down from
behind on a breakaway to cut the Huskies lead to 2-1. The scoring chance was
created by a centre ice zone turnover by the Huskies.
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| Morgan Willoughby scored her second goal of the season. |
On the ensuing
shift, the Willoughbys took control. Star fifth-year captain Kaitlin Willoughby
drove hard to left post of the Pandas goal and found younger sister Morgan
Willoughby with a beauty backhand pass heading alone towards the U of A goal
backdoor down the right wing.
Morgan blew home a
shot for her second goal of the season past Pandas netminder Dayna Owen with
1:49 to play in the frame to the delight of most of the 323 spectators in
attendance. The third-year defender’s tally held up as the winner in a 3-2
victory for the Huskies in the U Sports regular season clash.
“It felt pretty
good,” said Morgan. “Obviously as a defenceman, you don’t expect a lot out of
yourself to get many points in a year, so it always feels extra special when I
do get to score a goal.
“Kaitlin drove down
the middle of the ice, and I just saw that nobody saw me coming backdoor. I
called for it, and I was praying that she heard me, and it was a perfect pass
for me to get a goal.”
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| Kaitlin Willoughby set up her younger sister for the Huskies winning goal. |
Kaitlin, who plays
right wing, was pumped she could find her sister in a critical moment.
“I couldn’t honestly
think of a better ending than me and Morgan scoring that goal together and
having my family all in that stands right there too,” said Kaitlin. “In the
corner of my eye, I could see Morgan, and she was calling really loud.
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| Kori Herner had a big night scoring twice for the Huskies. |
Growing up first in
Canwood playing minor hockey together before moving to Prince Albert to play
for the Northern Bears female midget AAA team, Kaitlin, who is 22-years-old,
said she never had a magical on ice goal moment like what happened in Saturday’s
game with Morgan, who is 20-years-old. That mainly comes from the fact Kaitlin
plays forward, while Morgan is on defence.
“That was like the
textbook like connecting play,” said Kaitlin. “We’ve never scored a
game-winning goal like that together. It was awesome.”
Herner also had a
big night for the Huskies. At the 3:18 mark of the first period, winger Emily
Upgang passed the puck from behind the Pandas net to Herner, who was alone in
front of the goal. Herner’s initial shot was stopped, but she backhanded home
her rebound to give the Huskies a 1-0 edge.
 |
| Huskies D Kira Bannatyne (#20) battles Pandas C Alexandra Poznikoff. |
Before the game,
Herner was telling a couple of her teammates she was looking to break a 14-game
goalless drought. Before scoring twice on Saturday, the Kindersley product’s
last goal came back on November 17, 2017 in Edmonton, when the Huskies dropped
a 3-1 decision to the Pandas.
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| Goalie Jessica Vance dives to keep a puck away from her goal. |
“Liz was like you
are going to go again. It just happened. I just finally had luck.”
Herner was pumped her
team could pull off a dramatic finish to get the win.
“For my fifth year
ending off my career here, it was a really special moment,” said Herner. “It
was unbelievable.”
The Pandas had the
Huskies pinned in their zone for much of the third period holding a 21-5 edge
in shots on goal for the frame. Vance came up with a number of huge saves to
prevent the Pandas from getting more than the two goals they collected in the
stanza. The Prince Albert product turned away 35 shots overall to pick up the
win in goal for the Huskies.
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| Deanna Morin scored for the Pandas to tie the game at 2-2 late in the third. |
With the win, the
Huskies keep their hopes alive for finishing in one of the top two spots in the
Canada West Conference and earning a bye in the playoffs to host a
best-of-three conference semifinal series.
The Huskies sit tied
with the Pandas for third and fourth place in the conference with 52 points in
the standings. In the Canada West women’s hockey standings, teams earn
three points for regulation wins, two points for extra time wins and one point
for extra time losses.
The Huskies are 17-7-2 and have collected their 52 points
from 16 regulation wins, one extra time win and two extra time setbacks. The
Pandas, who are rated first in the U Sports Top 10 rankings, are 18-5-3 and
have collected their 52 points from 13 regulation wins, five extra time wins
and three extra time setbacks.
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| Kori Herner celebrates her first of her two goals. |
The University of Manitoba Bisons, who are rated second in
the U Sports Top 10 rankings, have a 20-5-1 record and top the Canada West
standings with 58 points built from 17 regulation wins, three extra time wins
and one extra time setback. The Bisons need to earn just one more point in the
standings to clinch at least a second place finish in Canada West and two points
to lock up top spot in the conference.
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| Huskies RW Kaitlin Willoughby, right, breaks past Pandas D Taylor Kezama. |
The Huskies close their regular season schedule by traveling
to Calgary to face the Mount Royal University Cougars, who sit fifth in Canada
West with a 10-15-1 record, on back-to-back nights this coming Friday and
Saturday.
The Willoughby sisters had about 40 family members in
attendance in Saturday’s win against Pandas to see Kaitlin’s final regular
season home game.
Kaitlin was sentimental on Saturday, but she said she is
expecting her team to make a long post-season run that includes making an
appearance at the U Sports women’s hockey nationals that run March 15 to 18 in
London, Ontario.
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| The Huskies salute the crowd at Rutherford after their win. |
“I said just to all
of them like I want to thank you all for how much they support me, because I’ve
honestly received so much support from them throughout the five years,” said
Kaitlin. “I was like but I am not saying it is over.
“You guys come see
all my playoff games. I’m saying thanks now, because it is a very sentimental
night, but at the same time, it is like I know we still have a lot of hockey
left. We’re playing until mid-March. I know that for sure. We are going for
it.”
Cooke captures saves milestone, Dogs fall
to Golden Bears
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| Jordon Cooke sits second all-time on the Huskies career saves list. |
On Saturday before
1,881 spectators at the Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton, Cooke made 27 saves as
his Huskies fell 3-1 to their “Forever Rivals” the University of Alberta Golden
Bears in a U Sports regular season clash. The Golden Bears, who are rated third
in the U Sports Top 10 rankings, have won six in a row to improve to 22-3-1.
They locked up first
place in the Canada West Conference with their win over the Huskies on
Saturday.
With his performance
on Saturday, Cooke now has 2,333 career saves in his four campaigns with the
Huskies and he sits second on their all-time career saves list. He moved past
Jeff Harvey, who now sits third on the Huskies all-time career saves list with
2,308 stops. Harvey played for the Huskies from 2005 to 2010.
Ryan Holfeld, who
played for the Huskies from 2010 to 2015, tops the Huskies all-time career
saves list with 2,602 stops.
In Saturday’s clash,
Tyson Baillie scored for the Golden Bears in the first period and Steven Owre
tallied in the second period to give the hosts a 2-0 lead.
Gritty forward
Parker Thomas scored his seventh of the season at the 3:23 mark of the third
for the Huskies to cut the Golden Bears edge to 2-1.
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| Parker Thomas had the Huskies lone goal on Saturday in Edmonton. |
Brendan Burke turned
away 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Golden Bears.
The end of the game had
some excitement as Golden Bears head coach Serge Lajoie was given a game
misconduct for not controlling his bench. Golden Bears forward Cole Sanford was
given a cross-checking penalty at that time, while Huskies offensive defenceman
Jesse Forsberg was given a 10-minute misconduct.
The Huskies, who are
rated fifth in the U Sports Top 10 rankings, fell to 18-7-1 to remain second in
Canada West. The Huskies need to earn two more points in the standings over
their final two regular season games to lock up a second place finish in Canada
West and earn a bye in the playoffs to host a best-of-three conference
semifinal series.
The University of
Manitoba Bisons, who are rated 10th in the U Sports Top 10 rankings,
have won five straight to sit third in Canada West three points behind the
Huskies with a 16-8-2 record. The Bison have two games remaining on their
regular season schedule.
U of S can’t finish
any lower than third in Canada West.
The Huskies close
their regular season schedule by hosting the Mount Royal University Cougars
(12-12-2) in back-to-back nights this coming Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. each
night at the Rutherford Rink.
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comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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