De La Gorgendiere eyes up long playoff run with Golden Bears

U of A pulls out 5-4 OT win over Huskies in Game 3

Aidan De La Gorgendiere (#6) shields the puck from a checker.

Welcome to the world of U Sports men’s hockey Aidan De La Gorgendiere.

The Abbotsford, B.C., product, who is best known for being a career member of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, is making an immediate impact with the storied University of Alberta Golden Bears. On Sunday playing a series deciding Game 3 of a Canada West Conference quarter-final set against the Golden Bears “forever rivals” in the University of Saskatchewan Huskies at Merlis Belsher Place, De La Gorgendiere scored his team’s first goal and picked up an assist on the overtime winner in a 5-4 victory.

The win allowed the Golden Bears to take the best-of-three set 2-1. The Huskies took Game 1 of the series 4-2 on Friday at Merlis, and the Golden Bears claimed Game 2 by a 3-2 final on Saturday at the same venue.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere had the Golden Bears first goal on Sunday.

With the series win, the Golden Bears advance to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series with the dates and times to be determined for this coming weekend.

“It obviously feels awesome,” said De La Gorgendiere. “We didn’t play near to our best on Friday there.

“I feel like the last two games we kind of figured it out and got back to what makes us successful. We were skating good. We were moving our feet out there.

“It feels awesome to get the win.”

Aidan De La Gorgendiere drives a shot on goal for the Golden Bears.

When Sunday’s clash between the Golden Bears and Huskies went to overtime locked in a 4-4 tie, it seemed like the visitors found another gear holding a 5-1 edge in shots on goal. At the 4:53 mark of the extra session, De La Gorgendiere, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 188 pounds, got the puck over to rookie right-winger Connor McClennon on the right wing.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere assisted on the OT winner on Sunday.

McClennon fired a shot on goal that was redirected by Golden Bears fourth-year left-winger Daneel Lategan past Huskies netminder Roddy Ross to give the visitors their dramatic 5-4 victory to the disappointment of most of the 1,236 spectators in attendance.

In May of last year, De La Gorgendiere and McClennon were on opposite sides of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series. De La Gorgendiere was skating for the Blades and McClennon was playing for the Winnipeg Ice. The Ice swept the best-of-seven series 4-0 to bring an end to De La Gorgendiere’s WHL playing days.

Just a little over nine months later, De La Gorgendiere and McClennon were teaming to set up an overtime series winning goal for the Golden Bears.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere, left, gets in a net front battle.

“It is pretty crazy to think about,” said De La Gorgendiere, who will turn 22-years-old this coming Thursday. “Me and Connor have played against each other it seems like our whole lives.

“Being on the same team with him is pretty nice. Obviously, he is a pretty talented player and a skilled player. It is awesome to have him out there.

“We’re looking forward to the next round.”

De La Gorgendiere came to the Golden Bears after trying to find the right opportunity in the professional ranks. After he exhausted his WHL eligibility with the Blades, he went to camp with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche before the start of the current campaign.

When things didn’t work out with the Avalanche, De La Gorgendiere went to camp with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL. The Admirals are the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Nashville Predators.

Cade Hayes scored the Huskies first goal on Sunday.

De Le Gorgendiere was then sent down to the Atlanta Gladiators of the ECHL. He played 10 games for the Gladiators posting one goal, four assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department.

During that time, it crossed De La Gorgendiere’s mind that maybe he should put his professional hockey aspirations on the back burner and make sure he has something to fall back on in going the university hockey route to get a degree.

“Probably mid November, I kind of decided I should reconsider my schooling package I got with the Western Hockey League,” said De La Gorgendiere, who is in the arts faculty at the U of A. “I am here now.

“I’m focused on winning a championship. Obviously, I still want to play pro.”

Dawson Holt (#16) had the Huskies second goal on Sunday.

De La Gorgendiere began playing with the Golden Bears after they returned from their Christmas break. In 10 regular season games with the Golden Bears, De La Gorgendiere recorded one goal, 10 assists and a minus-two rating. In the three-game series victory over the Huskies, De La Gorgendiere posted one goal, two assists and a plus-two rating.

He added he got swayed to joining the Golden Bears due to the fact they had a number of his former Blades teammates on their roster including Blake Gustafson, Wyatt McLeod, Noah Boyko, Eric Florchuk and Josh Paterson.

Alex Thacker had a pair of goals for the Golden Bears on Sunday.

“It did for sure,” said De La Gorgendiere about joining the Golden Bears due to the presence of numerous Blades alums. “Obviously, the program speaks for itself the history of guys signing pro deals and NHL deals, American League deals and whatever it may be out of this program.

“It was a pretty easy decision for me.”

As for Sunday’s game between the Golden Bears and Huskies, momentum seemed to jump constantly between the two sides. The Huskies got out to a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by rookie centre Cade Hayes, and the hosts pushed their edge out to 2-0 early in the second on a tally from third-year right-winger Dawson Holt.

Ty Prefontaine had a short-handed goal for the Huskies.

At the 4:20 mark of the second, De La Gorgendiere scored for the Golden Bears to get them some traction and cut the Huskies lead to 2-1. Golden Bears rookie left-winger Alex Thacker followed with a pair of goals to put the visitors up 3-2.

With 5:09 remaining in the second, Huskies third-year defenceman Ty Prefontaine scored a short-handed goal to even the score at 3-3.

De La Gorgendiere said the intensity of the clashes between the Golden Bears and Huskies was similar to what he experienced in the rivalry games in the WHL played between his Blades and their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders. He said the momentum changes in Sunday’s contest between the Golden Bears and Huskies were noticeable.

Vince Loschiavo gave the Huskies a 4-3 lead in the third.

“I think on our end we probably could have been a little more tight in our neutral zone and defensive zone there,” said De La Gorgendiere. “We had a couple of breakdowns there.

“It is the ebbs and flows of hockey. It seems like it happens in every game. This one seemed to be a little more I guess.

“All in all, I thought we competed hard and played well.”

The Huskies went back out in front 4-3 at the 6:44 mark of the third after third-year star right-winger Vince Loschiavo scored on the power play. The host side finished the contest 1-for-4 on the power play.

Tyler Preziuso scored for the Golden Bears to force OT.

The Golden Bears would even the score at 4-4 with a power-play goal of their own coming at the 10:49 mark of the third off the stick of third-year right-winger Tyler Preziuso. The visitors were 1-for-7 on the power play.

That set the stage for the Golden Bears to get the game and series winner in overtime from Lategan.

Second-year netminder Ethan Kruger made 29 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Golden Bears. Ross turned away 29 shots to take the setback in net for the Huskies.

Going into this Canada West quarter-final series, the two sides weren’t separated by a whole lot. The Huskies, who are rated eighth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, finished fourth in the Canada West regular season standings with a 20-6-1-1 record. The Golden Bears placed fifth with an 18-8-2 mark.

Daneel Lategan scored the OT winner for the Golden Bears.

U of A will be an underdog in a semifinal series against the Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds, who are rated fifth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, topped the Canada West regular season standings with a 22-4-1-1 mark. They also won three out of the four head-to-head meeting with the Golden Bears in the regular season.

With that noted, De La Gorgendiere believes the chemistry of his Golden Bears side is coming around, and he has faith his squad will give the Thunderbirds a good battle.

“They are a skilled team,” said De La Gorgendiere. “Obviously, they have some high end talent up front and some good D-men as well.

The Golden Bears celebrate their OT win and series victory on Sunday.

“We just have to bring our A-game. We have to come ready to skate and come ready to play, and I think we should find success.”

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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Golden Bears say “not so fast,” even series with Huskies 1-1

Series deciding Game 3 of Can West quarter Sunday at 6 p.m.

U of A’s Adam Hall (#12) battles U of S’s Landon Kosior for the puck.

The University of Alberta Golden Bears weren’t going to make life easy for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

Facing elimination from the U Sports post-season in a best-of-three Canada West Conference men’s quarter-final playoff series, the Golden Bears came out with a gutty effort on Saturday at the Huskies home rink in Merlis Belsher Place. Trailing 2-1 after 20 minutes, Golden Bears third-year forward Tyler Preziuso scored the equalizer on a power play at the 6:07 mark of the second period to force a 2-2 tie.

Playing at even strength, Preziuso potted his second of the night at the 8:08 mark of the third to put the visitors up for good by the game’s final score of 3-2 to the disappointment of most of the 1,342 spectators in attendance.

Connor McClennon had a goal for the Golden Bears on Saturday.

The win allowed the Golden Bears to even the series at 1-1. The Huskies and Golden Bears will now meet in a series-deciding Game 3 on Sunday at 6 p.m. at Merlis. U of S took Game 1 of the series 4-2 on Friday at Merlis.

In Game 2 on Saturday, the Huskies went ahead 1-0 scoring 78 seconds into the contest on a power-play tally from fourth-year forward Justin Ball.

Just 62 seconds later, a pair of former members of the WHL’s now defunct Winnipeg Ice franchise combined to pull the Golden Bears even with the Huskies at 1-1. Second-year forward Jakin Smallwood set up rookie forward Connor McClennon for the equalizer for the visitors.

At the 12:32 mark of the first, Huskies star third-year forward Chantz Petruic scored with his team working on a two-man advantage to give the host side a 2-1 lead.

Justin Ball had a goal for the Huskies on Saturday.

That set the stage for Preziuso to come through with his equalizer and winner.

Second-year netminder Ethan Kruger stopped 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Golden Bears.

Third-year goalie Jordan Kooy stopped 15-of-16 shots playing the first period in goal for the Huskies. He was pulled after the opening frame due to illness. Roddy Ross played the rest of the way in relief turning away 17-of-19 shots to take the setback in goal for the Huskies.

The Huskies, who are rated eighth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, finished fourth in the Canada West regular season standings with a 20-6-1-1 record. 

The Golden Bears placed fifth with an 18-8-2 mark.

The winner of the series between the Huskies and Golden Bears will advance to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series. The Thunderbirds, who are rated fifth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, topped the Canada West regular season standings with a 22-4-1-1 mark.

The Golden Bears celebrate their win on Saturday.

The Mount Royal University Cougars, who are rated third in the U Sports Top 10 rankings, swept the other Canada West quarter-final series 2-0 against the MacEwan University Griffins in Calgary. The Cougars took Game 1 of the series 4-1 on Friday and Game 2 of the set 6-4 on Saturday.

The Cougars finished third in the Canada West regular season with a 21-6-0-1 mark. The Griffins were sixth in the Canada West regular season with a 9-17-0-2 record.

Mount Royal will face the defending Canada West champion U of Calgary Dinos in a best-of-three conference semifinal series with the dates and times of the contest still to be announced. The Dinos, who are rated sixth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, placed second in the Canada West regular season with a 21-5-1-1 mark.

Huskies WHKY forced to go to series deciding Game 3

Game 2 of a Canada West Conference women’s hockey series between the U of Saskatchewan Huskies and the U of Calgary Dinos belonged to the Saskatoon Stars.

On Saturday, a pair of alums of the Stars under-18 AAA program accounted for both Dinos goals as they blanked the Huskies 2-0 before 424 spectators at Merlis Belsher Place to push the best-of-three quarter-final set to a series deciding Game 3 in the U Sports post-season. Game 3 is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. at Merlis.

The Huskies took Game 1 of the series 2-1 on Friday at Merlis.

In Saturday’s clash, Sydney Mercier, who is a second year Dinos forward and a Stars graduate, scored just 22 seconds into the contest to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. Fifth-year forward Elizabeth Lang and third-year forward Courtney Kollman picked up assists on Mercier’s tally.

With 3:55 remaining in the second, rookie Dinos offensive-defender Brooklin Fry banged home a rebound in front of the U of S net on the power play to give the visitors a 2-0 edge. Lang and Mercier, who is from Saskatoon, picked up assists on that tally.

Fry played last season with the Stars, and the Shell Lake, Sask., product skated for two seasons with the Prince Albert Northern Bears under-18 AAA team from 2020 to 2022.

Dinos fourth-year netminder Gabriella Durante made 28 saves to pick up the shutout win in goal. Huskies fifth-year star netminder Camryn Drever turned away 14 shots to take the setback in net for the Huskies.

The Dinos were 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Huskies failed to score on four power-play opportunities.

The Huskies finished fourth in the Canada West regular season standings with a 19-7-1-1 record, while the Dinos were fifth in Canada West with a 12-14-2 mark.

The winner of their series advances to play the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, who are rated second in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series in Vancouver. The Thunderbirds, who are the defending Canada West champions, topped the Canada West regular season standings with a 24-1-1-2 record and closed the regular season with 13 straight wins.

The Mount Royal University Cougars, who are the defending U Sports champions, swept the U of Manitoba Bisons 2-0 in the other best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series in Calgary. The Cougars took Game 1 on Friday 6-0 and closed out the series with a 5-1 win on Saturday.

The Cougars, who are rated sixth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, finished third in Canada West with a 20-7-1 mark, while the Bisons were sixth in the conference with a 10-17-1 record.

Mount Royal will face the storied U of Alberta Pandas in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series in Edmonton with the times of the games still to be determined. The Pandas, who are rated fourth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings, finished second in Canada West with a 21-3-1-3 mark.

Raiders pull out miraculous OT win in Lethbridge

Sloan Stanick scored the OT winner for the Raiders on Saturday.

The Prince Albert Raiders worked a miracle in Lethbridge.

Taking on the host Hurricanes in a WHL regular season contest on Saturday night, the Raiders trailed 3-0 after 40 minutes of play while being outshoot 24-11. They rallied scoring three goals in the third including two tallies in the last minute of the frame and the winner 17 seconds into overtime to pull out a 4-3 victory before 3,666 stunned spectators at the Enmax Centre.

The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal from 17-year-old left-winger Trae Wilke. The opening 20-minutes also feature a fight between Raiders defenceman 18-year-old defenceman Terrell Goldsmith and Hurricanes 20-year-old defenceman Joe Arntsen late in the frame.

In the second, the Hurricanes pushed their lead out to 3-0 on goals from breakout star 17-year-old right-winger Miguel Marques and rookie 17-year-old defenceman Kale Tipler. Tipler’s tally was his career WHL regular season goal.

At the 8:46 mark of the third, Raiders 18-year-old rookie import left-winger Krzysztof Macias potted his 19^th goal of the season to cut the Hurricanes lead to 3-1. Things proceeded to get really crazy from there.

With just under 41 seconds to play, Raiders offensive-defenceman Justice Christensen fired a shot on Hurricanes netminder Harrison Meneghin that got out from under the puck stopper and trickled over the goal-line. Originally, there was no goal called on the play, but the officials went to a video review and confirmed Christensen did indeed score to trim the Hurricanes lead to 3-2.

Christensen’s ninth goal of the season would go down as a short-handed marker. The Raiders had star netminder Max Hildebrand pulled for an extra attacker.

After getting back to even strength with Hildebrand again pulled for an extra attacker, Hurricanes centre Sean Tschigerl fanned on a clearing attempt that would have sealed victory for the hosts. The puck went to Raiders overage centre Turner McMillen who buried the equalizer that tied the contest up at 3-3 with 4.8 seconds remaining in the frame.

Just 17 seconds into overtime, Raiders star 20-year-old winger Sloan Stanick blew home his 24^th goal of the season from the front of the Lethbridge net to deliver the visitors to a 4-3 victory.

Hildebrand stopped 29 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Meneghin turned away 22 shots to take the extra time setback in net for the Hurricanes.

The Raiders improved to 26-25-1-3 having won their last three straight games. They sit seventh in the WHL’s Eastern Conference three standings points ahead of both the Hurricanes and the Calgary Hitmen.

The Hurricanes record moved to 24-24-5 and they are tied with the Hitmen (23-23-6-1) for the eighth and ninth positions in the Eastern Conference standings. The Hurricanes and Hitmen each have two games in hand on the Raiders.

Lethbridge gets back at it on Monday traveling to Red Deer to take on the 28-19-2-6 Rebels (2 p.m. local time, Peavey Mart Centrium).

The Raiders return home to host the Brandon Wheat Kings on Thursday (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre). The “Hockey Town North” crew will played nine out of their last 13 regular season games at home.

Minten’s OT winner gives Blades 10^th straight win

Fraser Minten had the OT winner for the Blades on Saturday.

Fraser Minten might be developing a habit of coming through for the Saskatoon Blades in overtime.

On Saturday in Medicine Hat, the Blades went into overtime locked in a 3-3 tie in a WHL regular season contest with the host Tigers at Co-op Place. Just 68 seconds into the extra session, the Blades had the puck in the Medicine Hat zone on a two-on-one break.

Blades star 19-year-old left-winger Brandon Lisowsky had the puck coming down the left wing. He passed the puck across the front of the Medicine Hat net to Minten coming down the right wing. Minten measured up his scoring chance and blew home a goal to the top right corner of the Medicine Hat net to deliver the Blades to a 4-3 victory to the disappointment to most of the 3,626 spectators in attendance.

The overtime tally was second such goal for Minten on the season and also his second goal on Saturday to go with a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department.

The Blades, who are rated first in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, now have victories in their last 10 straight games improving their WHL leading record to 41-9-2-3. The Tigers continue to lead the WHL’s Central Division as their record moved to 32-17-4-2.

The Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period of Saturday’s clash. The markers came from 18-year-old left-winger Hunter St. Martin scoring his 20^th goal of the campaign and centre Shane Smith, who turned 19-years-old in January, potting his 27^th goal of the season with the Tigers working on the power play.

Smith’s power-play goal came with Blades captain Trevor Wong serving a double minor for high-sticking. Wong’s infraction will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

With 4:08 remaining in the first, Lisowsky netted his 31^st of the season to give the Blades a big traction tally cutting the Tigers lead to 2-1. Lisowsky potted his second of the contest and 32^nd of the season with 5.8 seconds remaining in the second to even the score at 2-2.

At the 4:57 mark of the third, Minten netted his first of the contest to give the Blades a 3-2 lead. Tigers sophomore 17-year-old centre Tomas Mrsic scored for the host side with 7:32 remaining in the third to even the score at 3-3.

That set the stage for Minten to become the hero for the visitors in overtime scoring the winning goal.

Blades star netminder Austin Elliott stopped 20 shots to pick up the win in goal. Tigers 17-year-old rookie netminder Ethan McCallum turned away 20 shots to take the extra time setback in net.

Wong picked up a pair of assists in the win.

The Blades return to action on Monday when they travel to Brandon to take on the 27-21-5-1 Wheat Kings (2 p.m. local time, Westoba Place).

The Tigers also return to action on Monday when they travel to Edmonton to face the 18-32-2-1 Oil Kings (2 p.m. local time, Rogers Place).

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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