Thursday, 15 March 2018

Former Stars shine for Huskies in U Sports quarter-final win

Kennedy Harris scored the winning goal for the Huskies on Thursday.
    The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team turned to their Saskatoon Stars to get through the first round of U Sports’ “March Madness.”
    Trailing the second seeded Saint Mary’s University Huskies 2-1 in the second period of U Sports elite eight national championship quarter-final match on London, Ont., the alumnae of the Saskatoon Stars female midget AAA hockey team took turns in making plays to help seventh seeded U of S rally for a 3-2 victory on Thursday.
    With 2:18 to play in the second period at the Thompson Arena, rookie winger Abby Shirley slipped home a shot from a bad angle past Saint Mary’s netminder Rebecca Clark to force a 2-2. Before joining U of S, Shirley helped the Stars win Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League championships in 2015 and 2016 and earn appearances in the Esso Cup national female midget AAA hockey championships in both of those years. The Stars won a bronze medal in 2015.
    Shirley played three seasons with the Stars from 2014 to 2017.
Abby Shirley scored the equalizer for the Huskies.
    After Shirley, who is the youngest Stars grad on the U of S roster at 18 years of age, netted the equalizer for U of S, the Dogs wearing the green and white turned to their eldest Stars grad for the game winner.
    With 8:22 to play in the third period and working on a power play, Shirley got the puck to fifth-year checking centre Kennedy Harris in front of the Saint Mary’s net, and Harris quickly fired the winning goal past Clark to give U of S a one-goal victory.
    Harris played for the Stars for two seasons from 2011 to 2013 and helped them reach the SFMAAAHL championship series in 2012. At age 22, Harris is the oldest grad from the Stars on the U of S roster by 23 days over fifth-year speedy winger Kori Herner.
    Herner had a chance to pot an insurance goal late in the third, but she was stopped on a short breakaway by Clark. Herner played two seasons for the Stars from 2011-13 and helped the reach the SFMAAAHL title series in 2012.
    Holding their one-goal edge, U of S faced adversity late in the third taking a penalty with about 11 seconds to play creating a defensive zone faceoff. Saint Mary’s pulled Clark for another attacker to hold a six-on-four advantage with the number of skaters on the ice.
Kori Herner just missed scoring for the Huskies late in the third.
    U of S lost the defensive zone faceoff, but sophomore defensive forward Danielle Nogier broke after the puck and sent it into the centre ice zone to prevent Saint Mary’s from having any scoring chances. Nogier played for the Stars for three seasons from 2013-16, which included helping the midget AAA club reach the Esso Cup tournament in her final two seasons with the squad.
    In the first period, U of S came at Saint Mary’s hard holding an 18-9 edge in shots on goal. The green and white jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a highlight reel goal from fifth-year star captain Kaitlin Willoughby, who is a graduate of the Prince Albert Northern Bears female midget AAA team.
    On a one-on-one rush, Willoughby got an angle on a Saint Mary’s defender and roofed a backhand shot past the defender and Clark.
    The game’s momentum changed at the 1:44 mark of the second period, when Saint Mary’s scored on a positive bounce goal to tie things up a 1-1. Defender Beatrice Harrietha shot a puck that deflected off feisty U of S centre Brooklyn Haubrich to Saint Mary’s forward Caitlin Pejkovic, who deflected the puck into the U of S net.
    Just past the midway point of the frame, Saint Mary’s went ahead 2-1 on a beautifully executed two-on-one rush. Fifth-year winger Laura Polak sent a beauty pass across the front of the goal to star Saint Mary’s captain Breanna Lanceleve, who knocked the puck into an empty cage.
Danielle Nogier made the last defensive play to seal the Huskies win.
    That set the stage for the U of S comeback.
    Jessica Vance, who was a first team U Sports all-Canadian all-star, turned away 29 shots to pick up the win in goal for U of S. Clark turned away 35 shots to take the setback in the Saint Mary’s net.
    Saint Mary’s University posted a 20-3-1 record during the regular season and a 4-1 mark in the Atlantic University Sport playoffs on route to winning a conference title.
    U of S finished second in the Canada West standings with a 19-7-2 record and were 2-2 in the Canada West playoffs. U of S fell to the University of Manitoba Bisons in the Canada West championship series.
    U of S advances to the “frozen four” portion of the U Sports national championship tournament to play in a semifinal match on Saturday. The green and white will face the host and third seeded University of Western Ontario Mustangs, who blanked the sixth seeded Universite de Montreal Carabins 4-0 in Thursday’s other quarter-final.
    The Mustangs posted a 17-5-2 record in the regular season and went 5-0 in the Ontario University Athletics conference playoffs to win the OUA conference title.  

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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