Huskies fall face first out of the gate to start 0-2

Mount Royal romps to 7-2 victory at Merlis on Saturday

Ryley Lindgren, left, celebrates his hat trick goal for the Cougars.

    Well that was ugly.
    The U Sports regular season is only two games old, but the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team might be facing more adversity than they might encounter as the rest of the 2019-20 campaign progresses.

    After losing their home opener 5-4 to the visiting Mount Royal University Cougars on Friday at Merlis Belsher Place, the Huskies didn’t do any better in the rematch at the same venue on Saturday dropping a 7-2 decision to the Cougars before 1,231 spectators.

    Going into Saturday’s game, the Huskies were dealt a bad hand by forces outside of their control. They hit the ice dressing five healthy defencemen as Sam Ruopp, Colby Harmsworth, Kendall Fransoo and Shane Collins were all out due to various injuries.

Taran Kozun was pulled in the third period of Saturday’s game.

    They were forced to dress two defencemen who are in the first year of U Sports eligibility in Cody Spagrud and Jeff Faith. Faith had been a forward for a large chunk of his hockey career.

    Playing with a beat up back end helped spell doom for the Huskies.

    Still, they were able to show some jump at the start of Saturday’s contest.

    The Huskies drew first blood scoring on the power play 3:57 into the first period. On a two-on-one rush, left-winger Collin Shirley came down the right wing and centred a pass to linemate Logan McVeigh, who gave the hosts a 1-0 edge.

    After that goal, it was all Cougars for the rest of the opening frame.

    Just nine seconds after McVeigh’s goal, Chris Gerrie potted the equalizer for the Cougars to even things at 1-1.

    Shortly past the midway point of the frame, Cougars right-winger Keegan Iverson send linemate Ryley Lindgren into the Huskies zone on a breakaway, and Lindgren snapped a shot past Huskies star goalie Taran Kozun to put the visitors up 2-1.

Cougars LW Connor Rankin knocks down Huskies LW Carson Stadnyk.

    The Cougars didn’t stop there.

    While working on the power play, Lindgren tipped home a point shot from defenceman Jamal Watson for his second goal of the contest to give the Cougars a 3-1 edge with 21.2 seconds to play in the opening frame.

    Things looked like they were going to get worse for the Huskies when second-year defenceman Gordie Ballhorn received a high sticking major and a game misconduct just 3:44 into the second period. Ballhorn got his stick up on Watson, who went down hurt but quickly returned for the ensuing power play.

    Due to the fact Watson recovered so fast, the chances of Ballhorn receiving a suspension over an automatic league review for his infraction should take a big drop.

Keegan Iverson piled up five assists for the Cougars on Saturday.

    Ballhorn’s departure further depleted the Huskies numbers and strength on the back end. Carter Folk, who is a third-year left-winger, often took shifts on defence after Ballhorn was ejected from the contest.

    As crazy as it sounds, the Huskies scored the only goal on the Cougars five-minute power play. 
    Right-winger Levi Cable broke down the right wing with the puck and sniped a shot top corner of the Mount Royal goal to cut the Cougars lead to 3-2.

    When it seemed the Huskies had weathered the storm and gained momentum, they were sent reeling by an unexpected bad bounce.

Levi Cable had a second period goal for the Huskies.

    Just 26 seconds into the third period, Iverson dumped the puck into the Huskies zone, and Kozun went behind his goal in an attempt to play it. The puck took a strange bounce off the boards ending up in the right slot on Gerrie’s stick.

    Kozun tripped trying to adjust to the sudden change in direction, but couldn’t prevent Gerrie from putting the puck into an open cage for a 4-2 Cougars lead.

    Connor Chartier scored at the 3:41 mark and Bradley Kennedy followed with a single at the 7:53 mark of the third to give the Cougars a 6-2 advantage.

    The Huskies elected to pull Kozun after Kennedy’s tally. Kozun stopped 18-of-24 shots sent his way.

    Travis Child played the rest of the third in relief stopping 5-of-6 shots sent in his direction.

    Lindgren completed his hat trick scoring with 90 seconds remaining in the third to round out the game’s final outcome. Iverson collected five assists on the night.

Chris Gerrie had two goals for the Cougars on Saturday.

    Riley Morris turned away 27 shots in goal for the Cougars.

    Saturday’s game was a delete the video type outing for the Huskies. They have to hope they will get some defencemen back off the injured list.

    At 0-2, their road doesn’t get any easier.

    The Huskies next two games are on the road in Edmonton, Alta., against their “forever rivals” the University of Alberta Golden Bears (2-0). The Golden Bears have won the last three straight Canada West titles beating the Huskies in the conference final to win each of those championships.

    The two sides go at it on Oct. 11 and 12.

    The Huskies could potentially be 0-4, when they return to Merlis for their next home game on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. against the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns.

    That is crazy to think about considering the Huskies topped the Canada West standings with a 25-3 regular season record in 2018-19. The 25 wins they collected is a team record for most wins in one regular season.

The Cougars celebrate their victory and improving to 2-0 on Saturday.

    While it is early, the Huskies could find themselves in a constant battle trying to dig out of a big early hole for the rest of the 2019-20 campaign.

    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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