McVeigh’s winner gives Huskies sweep of Cougars

U of S to defend Canada West title, earns berth to nationals

Logan McVeigh, top, celebrates scoring for the Huskies.

    Even in the confines of a short series, Logan McVeigh was looking to eliminate any little voices of doubt that might be lurking.

    The sophomore centre led the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team in scoring during the course of a 28-game regular season netting 13 goals and 18 assists. Along with third-year winger Michael Sofillas and fourth-year winger Josh Roach, McVeigh was on a forward unit that became the team’s top line.

    In the Huskies 4-3 victory in Game 1 of their Canada West semifinal series against the Mount Royal University Cougars on Friday at the ancient Rutherford Rink, McVeigh’s line was unable to get on the scoreboard.

    With the Huskies locked in a 2-2 draw with the Cougars late in the second period in Game 2 on Saturday night at Rutherford, McVeigh’s unit was still searching to get on the scoreboard.

Logan McVeigh, left, finishes a check for the Huskies.

    That all changed with 3:39 to play in the second, when McVeigh took a pass from Sofillas, sped down the left wing and roofed home a shot to put the Huskies up 3-2. That tally stood up as the winner in a 3-2 final, which allowed the Huskies to sweep a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series 2-0 and advance to the best-of-three conference championship series.

    “Our line was struggling a little bit to start that game,” said McVeigh. “To get that goal, that game winner, it is huge for us going into next weekend.

    “Just to see that puck go into the back of the net is huge for confidence. We’re looking forward to next weekend.”

    For the second straight year, the series victory allows the Huskies to lock up a berth to the University Cup national championship tournament, which runs March 16 to 19 at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. Before nationals rolls around, the Huskies will attempt to win the Canada West championship for a second year in a row.

    The Huskies open the best-of-three Canada West championship series this coming Friday at 7 p.m. at Rutherford against the U of Alberta Golden Bears. The Golden Bears advanced to the Canada West final downing the U of Calgary Dinos 3-2 in Game 2 of their Canada West semi in Edmonton, which allowed U of A to sweep the set 2-0.

    The Huskies and Golden Bears met in last year’s final, which saw the Huskies pull out a 2-0 series sweep.

Winger Michael Sofillas circles in the offensive zone for the Huskies.

    At the University Cup last year, the Huskies finished fourth, and McVeigh was pumped his club had another trip locked up to that event. The Huskies will make their fifth appearance at nationals in the last six years.

    “It is exciting for sure,” said McVeigh. “We have a big job here to do next weekend against U of A.

    “Going back to nationals is huge for our organization, our team. We are excited to get out there (to nationals). We have to take care of Canada West first.”

    Against the Cougars in Game 2, the Huskies showed their resiliency. At the 5:55 mark of the first, Cougars captain Matthew Brown got in alone on Huskies star netminder Jordon Cooke and slipped home the opening goal of the game to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

Levi Cable (#10) blasts home the Huskies first goal on Saturday.

    Just 49 seconds later, the Huskies responded with the equalizer to force a 1-1 draw when second-year winger Levi Cable blasted home a shot from the front of the Cougars goal past netminder Cam Lanigan.

    At the 13:49 mark of the second, Devin Gannon tucked home the Cougars second goal of the contest past Cooke to put the visitors up 2-1. Just 26 seconds later, sophomore forward Andrew Johnson one-timed a setup pass from rookie linemate Connor Gay to allow the Huskies to tie the contest up at 2-2.

    That set the stage for McVeigh to net his winner.

    “Our team moto is never say die,” said McVeigh. “We always think we have a chance to win no matter what the score is.

    “A tie game like that, we are going for win. We are not going for the tie or overtime.”

Cam Lanigan makes a stop in goal for the Cougars.

    The Cougars came out hard in the third outshooting the Huskies 13-5 in the frame. Cooke stood on his head stopping a breakaway chance from Gannon and another from David Stephens.

McVeigh wasn’t surprised by Mount Royal’s push back.

    “They have a solid team,” said McVeigh. “They work hard every shift.

    “It seems like they are always coming at us. We play defensively very well and of course, we have our MVP goaltender that stood on his head for a couple of breakaways and that helps.”

    Cooke made 29 stops to earn the win in goal for the Huskies. Lanigan turned away 23 shots to take the loss in goal for the Cougars.

    Mount Royal finished fourth in Canada West with a 15-11-2 record, but lost nine of its last 11 games including action in both the regular season and playoffs.

Jordon Cooke, right, makes a breakaway save for the Huskies.

    The Huskies now turn their attention to their forever rivals in the Golden Bears. The Dogs topped the Canada West standings with a 21-5-2 record and are rated second in the U Sports top 10 rankings.     The Golden Bears finished second in Canada West with an 18-8-2 mark and are rated fifth in the U Sports top 10 rankings.

    During the regular season, the Huskies took three out of the four matches against the Golden Bears.

    “We go against U of A every year it seems like,” said McVeigh. “It is a big goal of ours to take care of Canada West first and then go out to nationals and try to win that. For sure, we are going to try and do that.”

    Game 2 of the Canada West championship series is set for Saturday, March 4 at 7 p.m. at Rutherford. If a Game 3 is necessary, it will be held Sunday, March 5 at 7 p.m. at Rutherford.

Johnson, Hendricks keep Huskies women’s team alive

Rachel Johnson, (#19) scored the goal that kept the Huskies alive.

    Rachel Johnson and Cassidy Hendricks made certain their U Sports careers would live to see one more day with the U of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team.

    On Saturday night in Vancouver, Johnson, who is a fifth-year forward, scored at the 2:56 mark of the opening period on a setup from rookie linemate Bailee Bourassa, and Hendricks, who is a star fifth-year netminder, made 23 saves to power the Huskies to a 1-0 victory over the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. Rookie Amelia Boughn turned away 17 shots to take the loss in the Thunderbirds goal.

    The Huskies victory in Game 2 of the best-of-three Canada West semifinal series with the Thunderbirds forces a series deciding Game 3 Sunday afternoon in Vancouver. UBC took Game 1 of the series 2-0 on Friday in Vancouver.

    The Thunderbirds went into the series as heavy favourites finishing first in Canada West with a 23-4-1 mark and being rated first in the U Sports top 10 rankings. The Huskies finished fourth in the conference with a 15-10-3 record, but they split the four head-to-head regular season meetings with UBC.

    The winner of Game 3 advances to a best-of-three championship series against the U of Alberta Pandas. The Pandas swept the other Canada West semifinal series 2-0 downing the U of Manitoba Bisons 3-2 in Game 2 of that series on Saturday in Edmonton.

    Besides advancing to the Canada West championship series, the winner of Game 3 between the Huskies and Thunderbirds earns a berth to the U Sports women’s national championship tournament to be held March 16 to 19 at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Holfy valiant in last stand for Huskies

Huskies goaltender Ryan Holfeld gets focused for action.

    Ryan Holfeld did all he could do to extend his CIS career to another weekend.
    As has been the case a number of times this season, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's hockey team couldn't score enough goals to support him.
    On Sunday night at the Flames Community Arena in Calgary, Holfeld was once again in net for the Huskies this time in a deciding Game 3 of a Canada West quarter-final series against the Mount Royal University Cougars. The fifth-year netminder kept making save after save and finished the contest making 41 stops in total.
    As far as the scoreboard was concerned, the effort went for naught. The Huskies were unable to score and fell 3-0 to bring their 2014-15 campaign to an end. Cam Lanigan made 23 stops in the Cougars goal to pick up the shutout.
    In defeat, Holfeld was once again heroic. He again gave his Huskies every opportunity to earn victory.
    His teammates paraded to the penalty box allowing the Cougars to have 15 power-play chances. Holfeld, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 185 pounds, only surrendered one goal on those chances, and it likely should have been more. Playing like a focused pro, he wouldn't let the game get away from his squad.
    This past weekend, Holfeld left one last big memory over three games of work to once again show just how amazing he could play in goal. He stopped 100-of-108 shots fired his way for a .926 save percentage and a 2.66 goals against average.
    In Game 1 of the series Friday in Calgary, he made 25 stops through regulation as the Huskies and Cougars played to a 1-1 draw. MacKenzie Johnston gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead in the first period, while Sean Aschim netted the equalizer for the Huskies in the third.
    The Huskies dominated play in the final frame of regulation outshooting the Cougars 14-3. During the regular season, the Dogs scored the third fewest goals in the eight-team Canada West Conference, and their struggles around the net were showing up again.
    Just 36 seconds into overtime, Holfeld was beaten by Cougars forward Matthew Brown on the first shot of the extra session to help the hosts skate away with a 2-1 win. Once again, the netminder had to suffer through a heartbreaking loss. His Huskies arguably had what would be their best outing of the series as Lanigan made 31 stops to pick up the win.

Ryan Holfeld makes a stop in goal for the Huskies.

    In Game 2 on Saturday in Calgary, Sebastien Pare gave the Cougars an early 1-0 lead. Before the opening 20 minutes finished, the Huskies finally had an offensive spark going up 3-1 with singles coming off the sticks of Jesse Ross, Zak Stebner and Connor Cox. Overall, the Huskies scored three times on five shots in the first.
    The visitors played a strong second, but the Cougars came out with a whole pile of pressure in the third. Pare would net his second of the contest, and Emerson Hrynyk tied the contest up at 3-3 with 7:20 to play in the stanza.
    From there, the Holfeld kept the Cougars at bay, and the Huskies were able to stave off elimination. With 29 seconds to play in the third, rookie forward Michael Sofillas scored to give the visitors a 4-3 victory, which ended a six game skid including the regular season and playoffs.
    Holfeld made 34 stops to earn the win. Lanigan turned away 23 shots in goal for the Cougars. The series and the battle between two former members of the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers was tied 1-1.
    As it turned out, the OT loss in Game 1 was the one that got away for the Huskies. In Game 3 on Sunday, Tyler Fiddler scored 30 seconds into the first to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. They outshot the Huskies 26-6 in the second and added two more goals on singles from Jamie King and Tyler Jewitt.
    The Cougars were on their way to face the Calgary Dinos in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series this coming weekend. 
    Holfeld's career was left to tick away.
    The 25-year-old LeRoy, Sask., product goes down as one of the best goaltenders the Huskies men's program ever had. In the regular season, he finished with a 53-34-2 record, a .919 save percentage, a 2.43 goals against average and eight shutouts. His 2,452 career saves in regular season play is a record for the Huskies men's team.
    During the 2014-15 regular season, he split time in goal with rookie Jordon Cooke, who came off a stellar WHL career with the Kelowna Rockets. The Huskies posted their first losing record in 19 years with a 10-15-3 mark due in large part to their goal-scoring struggles.
    Holfeld was still sensational recording a .922 save percentage, a 2.42 goals against average and one shutout in posting a 5-8-1 record.
    In his first four seasons at the U of S, the Huskies never finished lower than third in the Canada West standings. While those Huskies teams had a larger number of high end forwards, Holfeld did steal his share of games.

Ryan Holfeld (#31) gets congratulated after a win in early Jan.

    Due to mostly being made up of graduates of the major junior and junior A ranks, the players in Canada West are good at critiquing their own performances, and when Holfeld stole a win, there were a lot of players telling him thank-you afterwards, while vowing to play better going forward. He was key in helping the Huskies win a Canada West title in 2012.
    Away from the rink, Holfeld endeared himself to his teammates and players on other Huskies teams for being a comedian that would say the most humourous things out of the blue. He also knew when it was time to be serious and was the teammate others could confide to, if they were having troubles in their lives.
    Holfeld also excelled in the classroom, which allowed him to be accepted into law school after his third year with the team. Over the past two seasons, he was usually busy studying, when he wasn't at the rink. He was still able to squeeze in time to visit with family and friends for short periods after games.
    For all that he was able to do in his five seasons with the Huskies, it would have been nice if he could have gotten one more series win.
    On and off the ice, he will always be viewed as one of most proud success stories of the U of S athletic program.

    If you have any comments about this blog, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.