Rearguard scores twice in comeback over
Pronghorns
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| Jesse Forsberg celebrates his OT winner. |
A pair of Jesse Forsberg point blasts broke the hearts of
the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team.
On Friday night at the ancient Rutherford Rink, the
Pronghorns led the host University of Saskatchewan Huskies 2-1 going into the third
period before Forsberg stepped up to the forefront. At the 11:55 mark of the
third, the third-year defenceman wired a point blast past Pronghorns goaltender
Garret Hughson to tie the contest up at 2-2.
The contest proceeded to go to overtime, and at the 3:31
mark of the extra session while working on a four-on-three power play, Forsberg
drove home the winner from the point to give the Huskies to a 3-2 victory.
During the Huskies first five games, Forsberg has jumped out
to a fast start netting three goals and three assists. The Waldheim, Sask.,
product is looking to surpass his Canada West career high totals of three goals
and seven assists recorded in 16 regular season games last season.
Forsberg’s heroics allowed the Huskies, who are rated third
in the U Sports top 10 rankings, to find a way to improve to 4-1 against a foe
that came out playing at a high level.
In the opening frame, the Pronghorns had the Huskies pinned
for lengthy stretches in their own zone holding a 17-6 edge in shots on goal.
Thanks to stellar play of netminder Jordan Cooke, the hosts exited the first 20
minute locking in a 1-1 draw.
Third-year centre Justin Valentino beat Cooke on the power
play during a net scramble to put the Pronghorns up 1-0. The Huskies gained
some traction when Logan McVeigh and Carson Stadnyk combined to set up Michael
Sofillas for his third of the season to force a 1-1 tie with 2:50 remaining in
the first.
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| Josh Roach charges into the offensive zone for the Huskies. |
One of those turnovers did result in Valentino’s second of
the night to give the Pronghorns a 2-1 edge with 6:07 to play in the second.
After U of L received a giveaway in the centre ice zone, Valentino score after
his side applied a stretch of sustained pressure in the offensive zone.
The Huskies came out flying in the third playing their best
hockey of the contest. After Forsberg picked up the equalizer, he almost didn’t
have a chance to be the overtime hero.
In the dying seconds of the third period, Huskies captain
Kendall McFaull was set up alone at the side of the Pronghorns goal, but
Hughson stretched over to deny the scoring chance.
Cooke made 33 saves to pick up the win in goal for the
Huskies. Hughson turned away 30 shots to take the extra time setback in goal
for the Pronghorns, whose record moved to 1-1-1.
The two teams go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Rutherford.
Huskies women’s team wins fourth straight
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| Kaitlin Willoughby zips up ice for the Huskies. |
On Friday night in Lethbridge, U of Lethbridge Pronghorns
netminder Alicia Anderson had a sensational outing making 43 saves, but the
Huskies, who are rated 10th in the U Sports top 10 rankings, weren’t
kept at bay forever. They skated away with a 4-2 victory.
Aislinn Kooistra gave the Pronghorns a 1-0 lead at the 5:40
mark of the first.
The Huskies found the equalizer with 3:11 to play in the
first, when sophomore winger Courtney Cormack netted her first of the season.
U of S surged ahead 3-1 in the second, when fourth year
veterans Kaitlin Willoughby and Kori Herner both netted singles. Jodi Gentile
scored for the Pronghorns to cut the Huskies edge to 3-2 heading into the
second intermission.
Sophomore forward Shyan Elias scored for the Huskies on the
power play in the third to help the visitors seal victory. Former Swift Current
Wildcats star netminder Jasey Book turned away 14 shots to pick up her first
career regular season victory for the Huskies in her first start. The Huskies
improved to 4-1 with the win.
The Pronghorns fell to 1-3-1 with the loss.
Anderson, who is in her second season with the Pronghorns,
has stopped 160-of-169 shots in three starts in the current campaign to post a
.947 save percentage and a 2.98 goals against average. She has faced an average
of 56 shots a game.
The two teams go at it again on Saturday in Lethbridge.
CIS re-branded as U Sports
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| The U Sports logo. |
On Thursday, the governing body for university sports in
Canada launched a re-brand of its name and logo.
From now on, the governing body that was known as Canadian
Interuniversity Sport (CIS) will now be known as U Sports. The U Sports name
will be used in both English and French. It oversees the competition involving
teams at 56 universities, a total of around 12,000 student athletes, about 500
coaches and 21 national championships in 12 different sports.
The logo is a simple standing “U” with a maple leaf in the
middle. The maple leaf in the new logo evolved from a unique leaf found on an
old CIAU (Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union) letterhead from the 1980s.
The governing body for university sports in Canada ran under the CIAU name
until switching to the CIS name in 2001.
The change comes under the watch of current U Sports CEO
Graham Brown, who was hired in the fall of 2015.
In recent years, there has been some talk about changing the
name for the governing body for university sports in Canada to a moniker that
was viewed as less clunky. The U Sports name definitely achieves that
objective.
While it is not normal for a league to change its name in
the middle of a season, the change still came during the early stages of the
university sports season in Canada. The streamlined name comes just in time before
most of the fall semester only sports begin their respective playoff cycles.
The early reviews for the new name have been good, so here
is hoping the re-branded U Sports will be able to attract more national
attention and sponsorships it deserves.
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comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
