The Ruthy will be a rockin'

Huskies and Golden Bears to battle in a take no prisoners Canada West final

Huskies captain Kendall McFaull, left, checks U of A's Brett Ferguson.

    Right now, nationals mean as much as manure produced by the USask Cows.

    The University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the University of Alberta Golden Bears have berths locked up for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men’s hockey championship tournament, but the University Cup will seem far away for these “Forever Rivals” over the next two to three days. The Huskies and Golden Bears are set to lock horns for the 481^st, 482^nd and possibly the 483^rd time, when they battle in a best-of-three Canada West championship series at the ancient Rutherford Rink.

    Game 1 is set for 7 p.m. Friday, Game 2 follows on 7 p.m. Saturday and Game 3, if necessary, will be held at 7 p.m. on Sunday. These teams will not coast to save themselves for the CIS final-eight tournament, which runs March 17-20 in Halifax. Their series battle for the Dr. W. G. Hardy Trophy will resemble a battle for the Stanley Cup.

    Out all the rivalries that exist in Canadian university sports, Huskies versus Golden Bears in men’s hockey is arguably the granddaddy of them all, and it is definitely the granddaddy rivalry out of all leagues in Canada West. No other Canadian university teams have met more often and consistently since their first encounter in the 1910-11 campaign, when the Golden Bears dumped the Huskies 16-0 in Saskatoon on Feb. 27, 1911.

U of A's Kruise Reddick, left, battles Huskies centre Kohl Bauml for a draw.

    This is one of those rivalries that is still real, and all one has to do is look at the four regular season encounters between these two clubs in the 2015-16 campaign to see that is true.

    The Huskies topped the Canada West standings with a 22-6 mark, and their 22 victories matched a team record set in both 1987-88 and 1999-2000. They are rated third in the CIS top ten rankings.

    The Golden Bears finished second with a 19-7-2 record, are rated fourth in the CIS top ten and have won the last two straight University Cup titles. While they returned most of their roster from a season ago, the Golden Bears had some stumbles this season losing games to opponents they don’t usually drop game to.

    When it came to encounters with the Huskies, the Golden Bears peaked up their effort like they were about to take on the Soviet Union national team from 1972 that contained Vladislav Tretiak and Valeri Kharlamov. U of A’s best four efforts of the campaign came in games against the U of S.

    In the first battle on Oct. 30, 2015, the Huskies rode a 44 save performance by goaltender Jordon Cooke to a 3-2 victory at the Ruthy. The Huskies captured momentum near the end of the second period and controlled the third to erase a 2-1 deficit to pull out victory.

U of A's James Dobrowolski is stoned by Huskies goalie Jordon Cooke.

    One night later at the Rutherford Rink, the Golden Bears hit another gear to pull a 4-2 victory, while outshooting the Huskies 55-22. Cooke, who won Canada West’s most outstanding player and goaltender of the year awards on Wednesday, was spectacular in that setback.

    The rivalry went up another level when the two team met at the Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton on Feb. 5 and 6. The Huskies entered those matches with first place locked away in the Canada West standings, but the Golden Bears seemed to be out to send a message.

    They claimed the Feb. 5 contest 3-0, and the game featured 96 minutes in penalties. On Feb. 6, the Golden Bears skated away with a 5-2 win, while the chippy stuff continued as the clubs combined for 42 penalty minutes.

    There was also some gloating by some members of the Edmonton-based sports media on Twitter regarding the sweep by the underdog Golden Bears against the powerhouse Huskies. It seemed weird to consider a team like the Golden Bears, who have won 15 national titles, as underdogs.

    Going into the weekend, both teams can try and find ways to justify that they are somehow an underdog. The Golden Bears have to be given a slight edge due to the fact they have won the last two University Cups and have played their best when the Huskies have been the opposition. 

Huskies forward Michael Sofillas, left, tries to zip past U of A's Dylan Bredo.

    U of A’s roster is loaded with fifth-year players who have gotten it done in both the CIS and Western Hockey League in forwards Brett Ferguson, Kruise Reddick, Jordan Hickmott, James Dobrowolski and Levko Koper, as well as defencemen Thomas Carr and Jordan Rowley.

    The Huskies are a younger team as far as average age is concerned, but they have a group that is mentally tough and can get the job done. Cooke is a goaltender that should have an NHL contract, and the only reason that item didn’t come his way is because he stands 5-foot-10.

    Their defensive group of captain Kendall McFaull, Connor Cox, Jesse Forsberg, Jordan Fransoo, Zak Stebner, David Stumborg and Tyler Borstmayer match up well with the best the CIS has to offer. The forward group including Canada West rookie of the year Kohl Bauml, Levi Cable, Andrew Johnson, Logan McVeigh, Michael Sofillas, Jesse Ross and Cameron Blair are more than capable of providing enough offence to make it happen.

    You can also expect the crowd that will stuff into the Ruthy will be looking to explode the first time fifth year all-heart forward Matthew Spafford does something special.

Huskies forward Josh Roach slips past a couple of U of A checkers.

    The most vocal component of the home crowd will likely be the members of the U of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team, who will be looking to give their classmates another intangible edge.

    The 2016 Canada West championship series will likely mirror the 2007 WHL championship series, which was a seven game classic featuring the Medicine Hat Tigers and Vancouver Giants. The Tigers and Giants raged a war even though they both had berths secured for that year’s Memorial Cup tournament. 

    That WHL title series ended when the Tigers took Game 7 in double overtime at their long time storied home rink in The Arena on a winning goal from Brennan Bosch, who went on to become a Huskies captain and hero.

    The current Huskies don’t have Bosch in their lineup, but they would love it if the 2016 Canada West championship series had a similar finish to the one Bosch’s junior team had in the 2007 WHL final.

Blades fun in the Express

    I was back in Saskatoon Express this week with a fun story regarding the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades.

    On Saturday when the Blades host the Kootenay Ice at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre, they will hold their Home Grown Hockey Heroes night. The Blades hope this will be the first of an annual tradition, where they celebrate home-grown hockey heroes who could either be from Saskatchewan or former members of the Blades.

    For the first Home Grown Hockey Heroes night, the Blades are bringing in Hockey Hall of Fame member Bryan Trottier, who played for the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins from 1975 to 1994. Trottier, who is from Val Marie, has a special connection with Blades account executive/hockey advisor Dustin Kohn, who played in the WHL from 2003 to 2007 with the Calgary Hitmen and Brandon Wheat Kings.

    Anyone who has ever met Trottier knows Saturday will be a cool night to be at the SaskTel Centre. The story about Kohn and Trottier and the night’s events can be found here.

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

Cooke, McVeigh steal win for Huskies

Logan McVeigh fires home an equalizing goal for the Huskies.

  The University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team might be able to go out for Halloween as the Calgary Flames of the “Iggy” and “Kipper” era.

    When Jerome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff played for the Flames, the joke was Iginla would pot a couple of goals and Kiprusoff would make like 47 save to lead the Flames to a 2-1 victory, which was often the story when those two played together in Calgary.

    On Friday night at the ancient Rutherford Rink, Huskies faced their toughest foe of the season in the two-time defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport champion University of Alberta Golden Bears.

    Huskies netminder Jordon Cooke played the role of Kiprusoff making 44 saves, Logan McVeigh took on the part of Iginla scoring a couple of goals, and those performances equaled a 3-2 comeback victory for the Dogs.

    The 477^th all-time meeting between the two historic rivals definitely had drama. Just 58 seconds into the contest, the Huskies scored on their first shot of the game, when rookie forward Andrew Johnson slipped home an on-ice shot past Golden Bears goalie Luke Siemens to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

    The defending national champs responded by throwing everything including what seemed like the kitchen sink at Cooke. Even an extended rust break couldn’t halt the Golden Bears onslaught of shots. The lengthy break was caused, when a puck went into the Ruthy’s roof causing one steel beam to drop a straight line of rust across the ice, while two other beams added sprinkles of rust.

    With 58 seconds to go in the first, the Golden Bears were able to even things up at 1-1, when star forward Jordan Hickmott deflected home a point shot from defenceman Jordan Rowley.

Jordon Cooke made 44 saves to backstop the Huskies to victory.

    Cooke still made 22 saves through the first 20 minutes to keep the Huskies in the contest.

    The Golden Bears went ahead 2-1 at the 5:25 mark of the second, when rearguard Dylan Bredo found the back of the net for his first of the season. U of A kept coming at Cooke in waves, but the sophomore netminder slammed the door for the rest of the contest.

    As the second came to a close, the Huskies started to string a series of good shifts together, which started to turn the tide of the contest. The hosts played their best structural frame in the third, which cued the comeback.

    Just past the midway point of the third, John Lawrence and Jesse Ross combined to set up McVeigh with a scoring chance in front of the Golden Bears net. McVeigh made no mistake wiring home a shot to the top corner of the U of A goal to tie things up at 2-2.

    A little over three minutes later McVeigh tucked home the rebound from a point shot coming off the stick of Huskies captain Kendall McFaull to put the hosts up by the eventual final of 3-2.

    Down the stretch Cooke made a couple of nice glove saves to preserve the victory, which allowed the Huskies to remain undefeated at 7-0. Siemens made 22 stops as the Golden Bears dropped to 4-2-1.

    The two teams go at it again on Halloween night Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Rutherford Rink.

Hendricks robs Pandas

Huskies goalie Cassidy Hendricks frustrated the Pandas.

    Speaking of robberies, the Edmonton City Police department might be looking to put University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s team goalie Cassidy Hendricks behind bars for the number she did on the host University of Alberta Pandas on Friday night.

    Hendricks turned away 28 shots through regulation and overtime, which included making seven saves in a scoreless three-on-three five minute overtime period. The Vancouver product proceeded to stop all three shooters she faced in a tiebreaking shootout to lift Huskies to a 3-2 victory.

    In contrast, Pandas goalie Lindsey Post only face 10 shots through regulation and overtime and made eight saves over that stretch. Post stopped only one of two shooters in the tiebreaking shootout in her side’s setback.

    Despite the lopsided edge the Pandas had in the shots department, the Huskies held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in regulation thanks to goals by star defender Julia Flinton and standout forward Kaitlin Willoughby, who returned after missing two games due to injury. Flinton netted the lone goal in the shootout.

    Cayle Dillon and Ashley Morin had the regulation replies for the Pandas.

    The win was the fourth in a row for the Huskies, and it moved them into first place in the Canada West standings with a 7-1-1 mark. They sit a point up on the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. The Pandas fell to 4-4-1.

    These two clubs go at it again on Halloween Saturday in Edmonton.

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