A unique championship night you wish could last forever

Huskies first Canada West title at Merlis a lasting memory

Collin Shirley (#11) and family celebrate a Canada West title win.

Had anyone known how the world was going to change in the three proceeding weeks, maybe the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team and their supporters would have soaked in the Canada West title win a little longer?

Likely, that goes down as 20-20 vision thinking.

On February 29, 2020, the Huskies downed the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 3-1 in Game 2 of the Canada West Championship series to sweet the best-of-three set 2-0. The series clinching game was played before a standing room record crowd of 2,667 spectators at Merlis Belsher Place.

The Huskies pour off their bench after their Canada West title win.

The best place to be was on the ice surface with the Huskies family and friends following the win, which was the first conference title the team won since moving to Merlis before the start of the 2018-19 campaign. Laughter and jokes filled the air and smiles could be seen all over the place.

People were racing to get photos taken by mobile phone cameras posted on their social media accounts most notably on Instagram. A lot of the pictures included the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy and the Canada West championship banner.

The Huskies raise the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy.

A lot of other photos were pictures filled with all sorts of combinations of Huskies players, Huskies coaches, Huskies staff members, family members and friends.

It was as joyful a Saturday night as anyone could have asked for. Looking back on that night, everyone who had a link with the Huskies soaked in and enjoyed that night like they should have.

No one knew how the world would change.

After a full week of practices at home, the Huskies departed for Halifax, N.S., for the David Johnston University Cup, which is the U Sports men’s hockey national championship tournament.

Tanner Lishchynsky takes the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy for a spin.

On the U Sports awards night on March 11, 2020, Huskies netminder Taran Kozun was named the recipient of the Senator Joseph A. Sullivan Trophy as the U Sports player of the year, and he took honours as the U Sports goaltender of the year.

Huskies fifth-year right-winger Levi Cable captured the R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award as the most sportsmanlike player in U Sports. Huskies centre Jared Dmytriw was named to the U Sports all-rookie team.

Before the awards night took place, talk of a coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was starting to filter into conversations. Teams at the David Johnston University Cup were told there would be no post-game handshakes during the tournament and players to use their own personal water bottle during practices and games.

Jeff Faith, left, and Evan Fiala ham it up.

On March 12, 2020, the Huskies got to play their quarter-final game falling 3-2 to the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. The Huskies were missing a number of players including Cable as a flu bug worked through the team.

 At the end of the night, word came down that the rest of the U Sports men’s hockey championship has been cancelled due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. In other locations, the remainder of the U Sports women’s hockey national championship tournament and the U Sports men’s and women’s volleyball national championship tournaments were also cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic fears.

On March 13, 2020, a large number of sports governing bodies in Canada had halted sanctioning of events including Hockey Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a crazy twist, pretty much all of the Huskies who were battled the flu recovered by the morning of March 13, 2020. Due to the fact they couldn’t return to Saskatoon until taking their scheduled return flights after the tournament was supposed to end on March 15, 2020, the Huskies players, coaches, staff and families took in some site seeing before journeying back west.

Levi Cable was the most sportsmanlike player in U Sports.

At the moment, the Huskies still haven’t returned to the ice for any games since that Canada West title clinching win over the Thunderbirds and that quarter-final U Sports tournament loss to the Mustangs.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grip the world, all U Sports nationals for the 2020-21 campaign were cancelled and all regular season play for the Canada West Conference in 2020-21 was cancelled. Ultimately, all four conferences that play under the U Sports umbrella cancelled their 2020-21 campaigns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For almost a year now, the world has experienced various levels of restrictions brought on to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Merlis Belsher Place has been turned into a COVID-19 field hospital in waiting. The processing of some COVID-19 tests and COVID-19 vaccinations take place there now.

Jared Dmytriw made the U Sports all-rookie team.

The developments in the world make those that were at Merlis Belsher Place on February 29, 2020 look even more fondly back on that day. On that day and night, no one was really even thinking about a COVID-19 pandemic.

That day and night played out like most championships winning game days would.

During the 2019-20 campaign, the Huskies men’s hockey team had a season where it seemed the intangibles all fell into place.

The Huskies actually stumbled out of the gates going 0-3-1 over their first four regular season games in 2019-20. They roared back to finish second in the Canada West Conference with a 22-4-2 record.

U of S ended up hosting the Canada West Championship series after the first place University of Alberta Golden Bears, who were 23-5 in the regular season, were upset in their Canada West semifinal series by the Thunderbirds, who were fifth in Canada West with a 9-14-5 regular season record.

Taran Kozun was the U Sports player of the year.

With Merlis being the site of the Canada West Championship series, the Huskies faithful came out in droves. The Huskies slipped past the Thunderbirds 3-2 in Game 1 of the series on February 28, 2020 playing in front of 2,281 spectators.

That set the stage for the record gathering of 2,667 spectators in the Huskies series clinching win in Game 2 on February 29, 2020.

The Huskies came out flying in Game 2 going ahead 2-0 after 20 minutes on goals from Carson Stadnyk and Cable. Cable, who was playing in his 175^th consecutive game for the Huskies including action in the U Sports regular season and post-season, netted his second of the contest with 2:37 remaining the second period, while U of S was working on the power play.

Carson Stadnyk came through with key goals.

The hosts took that 3-0 lead into the second intermission holding a 23-13 edge in shots on goal.

Thunderbirds left-winger Jake Kryski scored to put the visitors on the board with a power-play goal with 3:16 remaining in the third to round out the 3-1 final in favour of the Huskies.

Kozun made 17 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Huskies. Saskatoon product Rylan Toth turned away 26 shots to take the setback in goal for the Thunderbirds.

Pandemonium filled the ice after time expired on the third period clock.

One of the most heartwarming scenes from the post-game celebration was when legendary Huskies head coach Dave Adolph gave his gold medal to Ben Bauml, who is the younger brother of Huskies fifth-year centre Kohl.

Ben, who has Down syndrome and is non-verbal, has been Kohl’s biggest fan throughout Kohl’s hockey career. The brothers have a tight bond.

Huskies fans cheer after their team scores a goal.

Ben attended all of the Huskies home games and became a big part of the team’s culture. He joined the Huskies in the dressing room for post-victory celebrations, and he was in the front row for the on-ice team picture after the Canada West title game victory.

Adolph wanted to make the night a little extra special for Ben with the gift of the Canada West gold medal.

No one knew at the time that would ultimately be Adolph’s last victory behind the bench as Huskies head coach. He announced on December 7, 2020 that he would be retiring.

Adolph’s retirement becomes official this coming May 1. All-world hockey bench boss, Mike Babcock will be coming home to Saskatoon to take over as the Huskies head coach for the next two seasons.

Looking back, all those linked with the Huskies wished those celebrations on the night of February 29, 2020 could have gone on a little longer.

The Huskies pose for a team photo after a Canada West title win.

With how the world changed following that night, the Huskies first Canada West title win at Merlis is treasured that much more.

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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