Thunderbirds steal overtime win from Huskies

Hannah Clayton-Carroll (#22) scores the OT winner for the Thunderbirds.

    The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team was game, but they still had their hearts broken in overtime by the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

    In a U Sports regular season contest on Friday at Merlis Belsher Place, it appeared the Huskies were going to send the 434 spectators in attendance home with a thrilling victory.
    Trailing 2-1 with 72 seconds remaining in the third period, Huskies right-winger Bailee Bourassa one-timed home a shot off a backdoor pass from defender Isabella Pozzi to force a 2-2 tie and overtime.

Mathea Fischer set up the Thunderbirds OT winner.

    The Thunderbirds proceeded to end things quickly early in the four-on-four extra session. Huskies captain Brooklyn Haubrich and Thunderbirds captain Mathea Fischer were battling for the puck in the right corner boards in the Huskies zone.

    Haubrich lost her stick allowing Fischer to skate away with the puck. The product of Oslo, Norway, fed a pass to the front of the Huskies goal, and the puck was knocked home by linemate Hannah Clayton-Carroll to give the Thunderbirds a 3-2 victory 23 seconds into extra time.

    Friday’s setback was a tough one to take for the Huskies, who have had an intense rivalry for some time with the Thunderbirds.  

    U of S controlled lengthy portions of the contest outshooting the visitors 24-17. The Huskies went a solid 2-for-6 on the power play.

    The Thunderbirds played like a classic 1980s European hockey team or like former NHL pest Claude Lemieux trying to fall and dive their way to victory by attempting to draw penalties.

Shyan Elias scored a buzzer beater for the Huskies in the first period.

    In numerous one-on-one battles on the ice, it often seemed the Thunderbirds players were light on their skates and went down easy.

    Even Thunderbirds sophomore defender Hannah Koroll, who was once the captain of the ultra-tough Prince Albert Northern Bears female midget AAA team, had a couple of moments where she fell off her skates quite easily during battles along the boards.

    The visitors did their best to get under the skin of the Huskies players, which including tapping U of S star netminder Jessica Vance a couple of times when play had stopped. The most noticeable ones came from Thunderbirds left-winger Jaedon Cooke early in the first period and from left-winger Ireland Perrott early in the third frame.

    At one point in the second, Huskies fifth-year defender Emma Nutter seemed to be wrapped up in a chat with Perrott after a stoppage in play. It didn’t appear the conversation revolved around favourite drinks from Starbucks.

Huskies D Emma Nutter and UBC captain Mathea Fischer mix it up.

    The antics from the UBC side seemed unfortunate, because when the Thunderbirds had the puck, they displayed moments that showed they can play with great skill.

    It didn’t seem like the extra-curricular activities phased the Huskies.

    With that noted, The Thunderbirds got on the scoreboard first at the 15:23 mark of the opening frame.
    Clayton-Carroll broke in on the Huskies goal on a breakaway and put shot off the right post of the U of S net.

    UBC left-winger Emma Hall was trailing on the play and put the rebound home quickly to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

    The Huskies evened thing up at 1-1 with a power-goal that beat the first period buzzer.

Bailee Bourassa celebrates scoring her equalizer for the Huskies.

    Bourassa fired a shot from midway up the left boards and linemate Shyan Elias deflected home the drive to put the Huskies on equal terms with the visitors.
    Thunderbirds head coach Graham Thomas protested the Huskies goal call by the officials for about three minutes to no avail.

    The Huskies carried that momentum into the second period gaining a couple of key scoring chances.
    Captain Brooklyn Haubrich was stopped trying to slide a puck underneath Thunderbirds netminder Tory Micklash, but Micklash just hung on for the save.

The Thunderbirds celebrate their OT victory on Friday night.

    Bourassa was stopped on a drive from the front of the net.

    In the third period, Micklash made the save of game flashing her glove hand to rob Huskies fourth-year left-winger Emily Upgang, who had a shot pegged for the top right corner of the UBC goal.
    The Thunderbirds jumped ahead 2-1 with 5:31 remaining in the third period, when rookie defender Kennesha Miswaggon fired home a beauty power-play goal from the right slot through a screen to the top left corner of the Huskies goal.

    That set the stage for the dramatics late in the third period and in overtime.

    Vance made 14 saves to take the extra time setback in goal for the Huskies (5-2-2).
    Micklash turned away 22 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Thunderbirds (5-2-1-1).

    The two sides go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Merlis Belsher Place.

Huskies hold Thunderbirds scoreless in Vancouver

Travis Child posted a shutout win for the Huskies on Friday.

    The U of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team is starting to hit their stride.

    On Friday in Vancouver, B.C., the Huskies, who are rated ninth in the U Sports Top 10 rankings, received a 27-save performance from backup netminder Travis Child to blank the host University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 4-0 in a U Sports regular season clash.

    The victory was the fourth for the Huskies in their last five games helping them improve to 4-3-2.

Levi Cable scored in the opening frame for the Huskies. Carson Stadnyk tallied for the Huskies in the second period.

    Rookie Jared Dmytriw scored his first career U Sports regular season goal in the third. Last season, Dmytriw was the captain of the Vancouver Giants and helped them reach the WHL final, where they fell 3-2 in overtime in a series-deciding Game 7 to the Raiders in Prince Albert.

    Carter Folk rounded out the scoring for the Huskies scoring into an empty net with less than 20 seconds to play.

    Rylan Toth turned away 23-of-26 shots to take the setback in goal for the Thunderbirds (2-5-2).

    The Huskies stumbled out of the gate with an 0-3-1 record due to a number of injuries they sustained on defence. U of S is still without regular rearguards Sam Ruopp and Colby Harmsworth due to the injury bug.

    The Huskies and Thunderbirds go at it again on Saturday in Vancouver.

Machart leads Huskies Canada West all-stars with record year

Adam Machart was a unanimous Canada West all-star selection.

    Adam Machart set new records for the U of Saskatchewan Huskies football team in rushing yards and all-purpose yards for one season, and as a result, he was a unanimous selection as a Canada West all-star.

    Machart was one of seven Huskies who were named to the conference all-star squad on Thursday.      The skilled and tough running back carried the ball 156 times for 1,334 yards and eight touchdowns during the regular season to break the Huskies record for most rushing yards in one regular season.

    In the passing game, Machart caught 20 passes for 204 yards and three touchdowns. He piled up 1,538 all-purpose yards to set a new Huskies team record.

    Two of the men who allowed Machart to pile up his yardage made it to the all-star squad from the Huskies offensive line in left guard Mattland Riley and centre Connor Berglof.

Colton Klassen was named to the Canada West all-star team.

    Utility player Colton Klassen was named to the Canada West all-star squad as a receiver hauling in 37 passes for 456 yards and two touchdowns. Klassen’s reception and yardage totals were team highs for the Huskies.

    In the running game, Klassen carried the ball 10 times for 86 yards.
    The fourth-year member of the Huskies is out for the U Sports playoffs with a severely injured right leg.

    One the defensive side of the ball, fifth-year defensive tackle Evan Machibroda, defensive end Nicholas Dheilly and defensive back Nelson Lokombo all earned spots on the all-star squad as well.

    Machibroda had 22 total tackles, five sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. Dheilly recorded 17.5 total tackles and five sacks.

    Lokombo posted 23.5 total tackles, 2.5 sacks and four interceptions. He returned two of his interceptions for touchdowns.

    The Huskies (5-3) host a Canada West semifinal playoff game against the U of Alberta Golden Bears (4-4) on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Griffiths Stadium.

    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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